Qatar-backed investment firm Delta Fund said it had bought specialist health care provider Care Principles for 270 million pounds ($547 million) from private equity firm 3i Group.

Care Principles, established in 1997, provides care, treatment and rehabilitation for adults with learning disabilities and behavioural disorders.

Three Delta, which provides corporate finance services to the Delta Fund, already owns UK health care group Four Seasons Health Care and Senad Group, an operator of special needs schools.

Private health care service across Europe has been an increasingly hot sector for private equity investment, with rapid growth expected, as well as related property transactions gains.

3i backed a management buyout of Care Principles in April 2005 in a deal valued at about 110 million pounds. 3i also had invested 1.5 million pounds in the business in 1997 for a 38 percent stake.

Delta Fund's subsidiary Delta (Two) owns a 25 percent stake in supermarket chain J. Sainsbury and is trying to buy the rest. - Reuters