job details for:
Dentistry - Practice Sale - Hampshire

Dentistry - Practice Sale - Hampshire (Job Ref: WR/JOBS/24862-11300)

Job Ref : WR/JOBS/24862-11300
Discipline : Associate Dentist
Contract : Permanent
Salary : £1,300,000-1,400,000 p.a.

Vacancy Location : Hampshire View Map

Job Description :

Flame Health Dentistry - Practice Sale - Hampshire:

Flame Health bring to the market a practice with five surgeries, laboratory, staff room, offices etc, plus parking for nine cars in Hampshire. The local bus station is only a few yards away and is adjacent to the town car park. They have no problems with parking or transport for patients. The surgeries were mostly re-equipped in the last five years with ADEC kit. They do not run a clinical computer system. The surgery premises are all on the ground floor in a listed building. That part of the building, which is on the ground floor, is held on a 999 year lease at a rental of £5 per year, not reviewed. (To all intents and purposes – including valuation – this is equivalent to freehold.)

About half of the surgery premises are in a ground floor only wing to the original house and this is held on a freehold basis. The premises are well presented and suit the practice of dentistry very well. The dental surgery has been here since 1927 with very few changes over the years. The owner from 1927 to 1948 died not all that long ago. The owner from 1948 to 1980 sold the practice to his son and he lives in a house next door to the practice. The son sold up in 1989/90. They have not tried to grow the practice during the last few years and we believe there is considerable scope to increase turnover under new management. In particular, they do not provide oral surgery, orthodontics, cosmetic dentistry, implants or periodontology. All these items are referred out. (They do have a request from a wholly private orthodontist to rent a room one day per week, but given the likelihood of a sale, they will leave this negotiation to a new owner.)

There is a “practice manager” who has been promoted from chair side duties and carries out paperwork. The partners supervise directly buying, staffing etc. Their NHS contract is currently a PDS, but they are transferring to a GDS contract on 1st Sept 2008, following advice that this is better to transfer to a new owner. The new contract will be for 15140 UDA’s and ten domiciliary visits at £421K. Their Denplan brought in £242K in the last accounting year but is expected to bring in about £260K for 2008. Private fees make up the balance of £870K. The Partners work a four day week and the associates work part-time. The hygienists are self-employed part-time and are paid about £27 per hour – they see about three patients per hour at a fee of £32.

There are almost six whole time equivalent posts for nursing, reception and admin. The dental technician operates as an independent lab. The New Forest is, of course, the big selling point of the practice and the reason why a good fee for goodwill is appropriate. They are aware that it is possible to buy more cheaply elsewhere, but they are unabashed about what they want. The town is a very middle class area, with good schools and services, close to the sea at Bournemouth, well served for motorway access to the rest of the country with London les than two hours away. There are airports in Bournemouth, Southampton and London. There is a good cheap bus service from Ringwood to London and the airports.

In terms of price – on the T/O of £870K + all equipment, fixtures, fittings + property they are expecting an offer of around £1.3m with no retention of payment relating to performance after the sale. They have had a number of offers already in this ball-park, but the financial crunch has meant lenders now want a good percentage to be put in by a buyer of 20 – 25% of the sale price. It is therefore essential that potential buyers have liquid funds of about £280K. After the last buyer failed to raise finance, they are remarketing the practice. The property can be leased instead of purchased, which would knock around £400-450K off the sale price. A commercial lease would be £28-30K p.a. initially, with three-year reviews. They have three actively interested sets of parties at the moment. One has made an offer, which has strings attached for them continuing to work in the practice. One partner is willing to commit to 18 months as an associate but he does not want to manage the practice. The other partner is taking ill-health retirement and he does not feel willing to offer to do this as it will compromise his insurance benefits. He is currently personally making about £7-9K per month profit from the practice by just keeping a watching brief on the business and employing a locum.

For further details please contact Flame Health.