C&C Alpha Group to Invest Rs 1,500 Crore in India

After the landmark £95m sale of Alpha Hospitals to Cygnet Healthcare of Universal Health Services (UHS), London-based international private equity firm C&C Alpha Group (CCAG) is planning expansion into healthcare and hospitality sectors in India.

"We will now be looking for new investment opportunities in healthcare and other speciality services in India, which provide a big investment opportunity. The Group plans to invest about Rs 1,500 crore in the healthcare and hospitality sectors over the next 3 to 5 year horizon in India," said executive director, Mr. Bhanu Choudhrie.

CCAG already has a presence in India through a wholly-owned subsidiary, Shanti Hospitality, which runs hospitality brands that include Hyatt Hotels, Ananda in the Himalayas (managed by IHHR), Amritara Resorts and Nidra Hotels, which is planning on adding fourteen hotels in the next 7 years period.

The group is eyeing to augment its market share through existing and new associations.  "In hospitality, we have already planned to add about 1,800 rooms in India under three brands - Hyatt, Four Points and Aloft Hotels - to take our total strength to about 3,000 rooms. In addition to this, the C&C Alpha Group is also building a 200-beds super specialty hospital in South Delhi, for which we have already acquired the land," Choudhrie said.

As an investment holding company, CCAG incubates, grows and creates value for its portfolio companies. Its track record includes successful ventures in healthcare, hospitality, real estate, aviation, utilities and agriculture. By bringing together entrepreneurs, strategy consultants, project managers and financial analysts, it aims to create stakeholder value by organic growth and strategic partnerships. CCAG typically invests 2m-40m per transaction and takes a mid-to-long-term view of its investments.

The buyout of Alpha Hospitals was viewed as an ‘excellent geographical fit’ by UHS--one of the largest hospital providers in the US. With the addition of four new hospitals and 305 beds, UHS now has a total of of 21 hospitals and approximately 1,100 beds in the UK through its subsidiary Cygnet.

Acquisition of Alpha Hospitals Gets C&C Alpha £95m

After it brokered a breakthrough £150-million deal for the Abu Dhabi-based VPS Healthcare Group recently, international private equity firm C&C Alpha Group (CCAG) has announced the sale of Alpha Hospitals to Cygnet Healthcare in a £95-million acquisition.

Cygnet Healthcare is the UK arm of the parent company, Universal Health Services (UHS), which has held the development as an ‘excellent geographical fit’ to their expanding UK business. The acquistion adds four new hospitals and 305 beds to the rapidly expanding Cygnet family. 

Launched in 2002 with CCAG’s financial backing, Alpha Hospitals is the largest purveyor of behavioural care services for adults and adolescents in England and is defined by its state-of-the-art facilities in Bury, Sheffield and Woking.  It is known for excellence in a sector where secure settings are extremely critical and definitive of specialised tertiary care.

Patricia Hodgkinson, former CEO of Florence Nightingale Hospitals, initiated the group which was soon joined by C&C Alpha Group founder, Mr. Bhanu Choudhrie. With working associations with the NHS and its local commissioning partners, Alpha Hospitals grew on from its first site-- a disused hospital in 2003 in Woking, Surrey—to amass a turnover of £42.1 million for the year ended March 2014.

Since then, it has been attracting business interests from buyers and investors, including UHS—one of the largest hospital providers in the US.

"The strong interest we had from potential bidders and the price we ultimately received is testament to the strength of the business," said Choudhrie. "CCAG incubated Alpha Hospitals and invested in it for 13 years, allowing it to scale up and grow successfully. I am delighted it will continue to grow under a new owner.”

"Our approach is to back management teams which create long-term value. I was on the board at its inception and have always taken a close personal interest in the business. We will now be looking for new investment opportunities in healthcare and other speciality services", he added.

CCAG facilitates business interests in healthcare, hospitality, real estate, aviation, utilities and agriculture. Its £150-million deal with VPS for a cancer hospital in London will see the first full-scale proton beam therapy centre come up in the UK and is the first healthcare facility to be re-developed in over 30 years.

C&C Alpha Group is headquartered in London with offices in India. Established as a holding company for private venture capitalists with more than 30 years of industry captivity, it brings together entrepreneurs, strategy consultants, project managers and financial analysts to create stakeholder value through organic growth and strategic partnerships.

Bunny Chow is the talk of town in Soho, London

Modern, fast-paced lifestyles leave little room to enjoy the meal that makes your day –the breakfast. While you might not always be positioned to prepare one yourself, there’s always the choice to drop by at a nearby restaurant and grab a quick bite. The latest fad in London’s Soho district is something similar but with a South African heritage--the Bunny Chow—a signatory South African-inspired breakfast dish served with an English spin at a restaurant that’s all the rage right now, Bunnychow.  

Having won the ‘most innovative breakfast in the UK award’ earlier this year, Bunnychow has built up wide acclaim for its funky innovations which are a take on the classic full English bunny. The 4 versions here include the ‘Durban Bunny’(slow-cooked mutton curry offered with a choice of toppings including a mango chutney and raita), the ‘Chakalaka Bunny’(spicy chicken and tomato, similarly offered with a choice of toppings), the Piri Piri Pork Bunny’ (pulled pork and Bunnyschow’s homemade Peri-Peri sauce), and the ‘Veggie Bunny’(cauliflower, chickpeas, paneer and a spicy South African sauce).

While Bunny Chow had already made it to the UK through its English adaptation, the full English Bunny, Atholl Milton, the founder and owner at Bunnychow, sought a dash of authentic South African Heritage to the delicacy after his visits to Durban and Cape Town."The actual combo of a bunny and a beer was really appealing and I loved the idea of the bunny being portable and I thought the notion of a portable lunch would work really well in London because it's a city that is constantly on the move,” says Milton –thereby revealing how Bunnychow came into being.

The classic full English Bunny is a hollowed-out brioche loaf stuffed with bacon, button mushrooms, sausages, bobotie spiced beans, black pudding and topped off with a fried egg.  Whether it is to be had handheld or with a fork is a dividing question—while the world prefers a free hand, Londoners find cutlery as their choice.
 
Bunnychow started off mobile, as a food truck and was soon a successful pop-up shop. The first pop-up shop came up in Boxpark, Shoreditch, London and their new restaurant is opening up on Wardour Street. It is owned by the hospitality group, Shanti Hospitality, a subsidiary of the larger holding company, C&C Alpha Group which has entrepreneurs Mr. Bhanu Choudhrie and Dhairya Choudhrie on the board of directors.  

Alpha Hospitals Acquired in £95m by Cygnet

Alpha Hospitals, the largest purveyor of specialist psychiatric care in England, has changed hands from its international private equity owner, C&C Alpha Group (CCAG) in a £95m sell-off. With the new ownership, Cygnet Healthcare and the parent company Universal Health Services (UHS) have their UK footprint strengthened.

Launched in 2002 with the vision of improving standards of personalised care for adults and children with behavioural and psychiatric conditions, Alpha Hospitals state-of-the-art facilities in Bury, Sheffield, and Woking have been a new high in a sector where secure settings define tertiary care. 

Originally launched by Patricia Hodgkinson, the former chief executive of the Florence Nightingale Hospitals Group, it got on the board the founder C&C Alpha Group, Bhanu Choudhrie. Summing up the acquisition, he said, “The strong interest we had from potential bidders, and the price we ultimately received, is testament to the strength of the business. CCAG incubated Alpha Hospitals and invested in it for 13 years, allowing it to scale up and grow successfully. I am delighted it will continue to grow under a new owner.”

“Our approach is to back management teams which create long-term value. I was on the board at its inception and have always taken a close personal interest in the business. We will now be looking for new investment opportunities in healthcare and other speciality services", he added.

From the first site opened with CCAG’s backing at a disused hospital in Woking, Surrey, in 2003, Alpha Hospitals expanded into Bury and Sheffield and had a turnover of £42.1m for the year ended March, 2014. With rising investor interest, the responsibility of advising on strategic options was handed over to KPMG which ran the sale process.

CCAG runs successful business operations in healthcare, hospitality, real estate, aviation, utilities, and agriculture. It recently brokered a deal for a new cancer hospital in London for £150m for the Abu Dhabi-based VPS Healthcare Group.The private facility would be the first in the UK to offer proton beam

Headquartered in London, C&C Alpha Group is an international private equity firm, with offices in India as well. Established as a holding company for private venture capitalists with more than 30 years of industry captivity, it brings together entrepreneurs, strategy consultants, project managers, and financial analysts to create stakeholder value by organic growth and strategic partnerships.

Atlantic Coast Riding High in Florida

Florida is becoming a happy hunting ground for bank merger activities. The Sunshine State, with over 22 deals worth $643 million for $5.5 billion of assets and $4.4 billion in deposits since 2014, is indeed red hot and is likely to stay that way, suggest reports.

Atlantic Coast Financial Corporation (ACFC) is one of the players to watch out here and should be a calling card for out-of-state banks planning their way into Florida. After a grind through the credit crisis, ACFC’s resurgence has been phenomenal as its non-performing assets are down from 5% to 1.16%, breaking away the mould from being “a troubled institution” to a “conducive foundation”.

Hailing the turnround, CEO John Stephans said, “Our team has worked hard to achieve a strong turnaround at Atlantic Coast and, with five consecutive quarters of profitability following our successful capital raise in December 2013, we believe the results are readily apparent and momentum is building.”
The company has just delivered its sixth consecutive quarterly report with reported earnings per share of 36 cents and there’s no reason this momentum would slow down, experts believe.

Stephans further said “We are pleased to report another solid quarterly performance for Atlantic Coast, marked by attractive loan growth and sound credit quality, notable interest income growth, and continued improvement in our interest margin. Together, these factors contributed to ongoing profitability for our company and its shareholders. Atlantic Coast is now stronger than ever as a result of the hard work and dedication of our team members as we have pursued our ambitious goals, and I am particularly proud of our team has accomplished over the past six months.”

With several bank stock activists and specialists on its shareholders list, building shareholder value may be added pressure, but at 88% of a growing book value, Atlantic Coast is a fantastic stock for navigating and building on the flourishing Florida banking market.

About Atlantic Coast Financial Corporation

Headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, Atlantic Coast Financial Corporation is the holding company for Atlantic Coast Bank, a community-oriented financial institution serving north-eastern Florida and south-eastern Georgia markets through 11 branches.

Set up in 1939 as a credit union to serve the employees of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, the bank got its charter changed from a federal credit union to a federal mutual savings bank in 2000 and focuses on attracting retail and commercial deposits and investing those funds in traditional loan opportunities.

The top leadership of the bank includes Mr. Bhanu Choudhrie, Executive Director C&C Alpha Group and director to Customers Bancorp in Southeast Pennsylvania and Quatro Management in New York.

Lasting Relationships Pay Off, Says Sam Sidhu of Megalith Capital Management

Realty can be a tough profession to excel in if market analysis is not your thing. At Bisnow’s third annual ‘Residence of the Future’ event held recently, key realty personalities, including Sam Sidhu of Megalith Capital Management, shared what works and what doesn’t to get your realty bearings just right.

1.    Bull Markets Won’t Last Forever: “You have to assume the market’s as good as it’s going to get,” says HFZ Capital founder Ziel Feldman. His advice to young developers—no matter how juicy the market is looking, do not have price appreciation dictate your scheme of things.  While Manhattan realty is holding strong at the moment, Ziel feels some developers have gone overboard with their pricing projections for nearby neighbourhoods. 

2.    Be in step with technology: Development is a long game that can be easily outpaced by technology, says Gale International VP Stan Gale Jr.  There’s no point of a project rendered obsolete in the face of technological advances. Think of tech-driven amenities in a more ‘plug-and-play’ manner, like an iPhone that downloads apps as soon as they are rolled out. Contemporary markets are technology-driven, so should be your projects, says Gale.

3.     Don’t Shy off From Public Infrastructure Investments: Aging infrastructure bears down on reliability of services to new buildings, says AFK Group partner Mark Richter, who believes investing in public infrastructure and transit systems is the way forward to smart development. Greenland’s Pacific Park in Brooklyn, for example,  will have an eight-acre park with 24/7 public access and will reconnect the cut-off parts of the borough.

4.     Lasting Relationships over Short-Term Results: Recalling his early days, Slate Property Group principal David Schwartz says he had to offer several lunches to his lenders on his first development project to get them come down Brooklyn and those meetings laid the foundation of long, lasting relationships that have helped him get subsequent projects done.

Long-term relationships far outweigh short-term benefits and that’s where the focus should be on, concurs Sam Sidhu, CEO, Megalith Capital Management. “People tend to be very short-sighted on trying to get the best deal,” he says, as they look for cheap debt or raise equity. “That’s not always the right move to build a long-term sustainable platform”, he says. 

Founded in 2009 by Samveer Sidhu in collaboration with Bhanu Choudhrie, Executive Director, C&C Alpha Group, Megalith Capital Management is redefining investments in NYC with its integrated platform that specializes in the acquisition, repositioning, development and management of residential, commercial and mixed-use properties in the area. 

Hyatt,the 12th best company to work for in India

Hyatt Hotels and Resorts was recently conferred with the title of the 12th best company to work for at a ceremony in Mumbaiorganised by Great Place to Work (India).

Out of 708 participants listed, a total of 100 companies made it to 'India's Best Companies to Work for in 2015' list. Hyatt has been included in this prestigious list on the basis of a cultural audit as well as a survey conducted by Great Place to Work. The survey assesses the initiatives undertaken by the company on a daily basis to build trust as well as the respect of its people.

With a tradition of innovation developed over its more than fifty-year history, Hyatt operates with a mission of “providing authentic hospitality by making a difference in the lives of the people every day”. They adhere to a set of core values that further characterises the “Hyatt” culture.Hyatt Hotels and resorts manages, franchise, owns and develops Hyatt branded hotels, resorts and residential and vacation ownership properties around the world. The company's worldwide portfolio consists of a whopping 587 properties.

Hyatt Hotels and Resorts is recognized the world over, as a leader in promoting a nurturing as well as a positive and diverse working environment. The company has received some of the most prestigious workplace distinctions in recent years, including being listed among:

•    The top 10 companies to work for in Asia by Great Place to Work® in 2015.

•    The top 10 companies to work for in the UAE by Great Place to Work® UAE in

•    The top 50 companies to work for in India by Great Place to Work® in 2014.

Also, The Human Rights Campaign named Hyatt as a "Best Place to Work for LGBT Equality" for the tenth consecutive year in 2014.

Hyatt has also been featured in the prestigious list of awardees of Gallup Great Workplace Award recognizing them for their extraordinary ability to create an engaged workplace culture.

About Great place to work:

Head-quartered in San Francisco, is a global research, consulting and training firm that helps organizations identify, create and sustain great workplaces through the development of high-trust workplace cultures.

About C&C Alpha Group:

Private investment firm C&C Alpha Group is a London based equity enterprise with entrepreneurs Mr. Bhanu Choudhrie and Dhairya Choudhrie among the board of directors. The Group’s hospitality subsidiary, Shanti Hospitality has investments worldwide, including Hyatt Hotels and Resorts.