Phoenix Therapy is latest buy for CareTech

Caretech, the Aim-listed social care provider, has bought Edinburgh-based Phoenix Therapy and Care, its first acquisition in Scotland.

The deal, for 700,000, is the latest in a string of takeovers by the provider, which earlier this year assembled an 85 million acquisitions war chest to consolidate the fragmented social care market.

Phoenix Therapy and Care provides services for people with complex spinal or brain injuries and the deal also represents Hertfordshire-based CareTech's first move into the area of acquired brain injuries (ABI).

The firm said the deal gives it a foothold in Scotland to offer a range of other services, as well as the chance to make a string of additional purchases in the area of ABI.

A spokeswoman for the firm said it was eyeing further takeover deals in a range of new service areas - CareTech's core business is running care homes for people with learning difficulties or mental health problems.

The Scottish deal was announced yesterday at the same time as the 2.8m acquisition of Care UK's children's fostering business, which will be rolled into CareTech's existing foster care operation.

In April, the firm announced that it had significantly increased its funds available for acquisitions after staging a 15m share placing and by increasing its bank lending to 165m.

The firm has now secured eight takeover deals in the space of eight months.