Bupa has up to £300m for deals

The unlisted company made profits of £638m last year and would come in at around 50-60th position in the FTSE 100 if it were a listed company, Stuart Fletcher said.

Bupa, set up in 1947, ploughs all its profits back into the business. It has no plans for a listing but with £2bn in outstanding debt, it would not want to risk its single-A credit rating by issuing more debt to fund expansion, Fletcher said.

“We have some headroom, and that headroom we are using, but it’s relatively small – we are talking about £200m-£300m for this year.”

Bupa has completed seven deals totalling £1.6bn in the past three years, including moving into new markets in Poland and Chile. Expansion in Peru was likely the next focus, Fletcher said.

The firm was making small “fill-in” acquisitions, rather than planning any major purchase.

Bupa’s most recent debt issue was a £350m sterling bond due 2021 with a coupon of 3.375 per cent, launched last year and currently trading at a yield of 2.5 per cent.

Bupa gets 70 per cent of its revenue from health insurance but also operates hospitals, care homes and medical clinics in many of its international mar-kets.