Private equity vet ownership in the UK

Four UK vet groups are owned or controlled by private equity firms: IVC Evidensia (EQT and Silver Lake), VetPartners (BC Partners), Medivet (controlled by a CVC Capital Partners fund) and Kin Vet Community (Perwyn). On 1 November 2026 they ran 2,524 of the 7,602 UK practice sites in our directory: about one in three.

Most of their practices don’t carry the group’s name, so the sign outside may not tell you. Search for your vet to see who owns it.

Which vet groups are owned by private equity?

The CMA, the UK’s competition watchdog, set out who owns the six large groups in its March 2026 report. The owners’ own websites name the firms.

The other three large groups aren’t owned by private equity:

What does private equity ownership mean?

A private equity firm buys companies with money pooled from investors, such as pension funds, and usually plans to sell them on some years later. A listed company is owned by whoever holds its shares and has to publish its results each year. Mars is a private company owned by one family.

The vets and nurses are the same professionals whoever owns the practice. Every vet must be registered with the RCVS and follow its Code of Professional Conduct. Ownership shapes the business around them: prices, medicine mark-ups, and where you’re sent for referrals or out-of-hours care.

What the CMA found

The CMA’s market investigation reported in March 2026. It looked at the six large groups together and found that:

• Share of practices: over 60% of UK practices are owned in whole or in part by them, up from about 10% in 2013.
• Prices: from January 2023 to July 2024, average prices at IVC, VetPartners, Medivet, CVS and Linnaeus together were 18.3% higher than at independent practices. The evidence for Pets at Home was not conclusive.
• After takeovers: for at least three of the five groups that bought practices since 2015, prices at those practices rose 9% within four years, compared with how they had been rising before. It saw no such effect at practices Linnaeus bought.
• Profits: CVS, IVC, Pets at Home and VetPartners made profits well above what the CMA would expect in a market with strong competition, over a long period.
• Awareness: fewer than half (47%) of customers at large-group practices knew their vet was part of one. At VetPartners it was 19%.

What the CMA didn’t find

• Private equity specifically: the findings cover all six groups, including the two listed companies and Mars-owned Linnaeus, and aren’t broken down by type of owner.
• Clinical results: its evidence on quality came from a survey of owners. On quality of service, independents scored 83% net satisfaction and the large groups 76%. That is how owners felt, not a measure of how well animals were treated.
• Local choice: at 89% of practices, owners have four or more practices to choose from nearby. The CMA put rising prices down to weak competition between practices, big and small.
• Break-ups and price caps: it didn’t order groups to sell practices, and the only fees it capped were for prescriptions. Instead, the CMA’s reforms require price lists and make every practice in a group say so. The CMA said it will keep watching new takeovers.

How to tell if your vet is owned by private equity

1. Look it up: Search our directory by name or postcode. Each practice page names the group that owns it, and the group page shows who owns the group.
2. Check the small print: the footer or privacy policy of the practice’s website usually names the company behind it. Look that company up free at Companies House and follow “Persons with significant control” up the chain. Our guide to finding out who owns your vet walks through it.
3. Ask at the desk: “Is this practice independent, or part of a group?” is a fair question. From 22 March 2027, every practice in a larger group must tell you anyway. Once you know the group, the tables above tell you who owns it.

How to find a vet that isn’t owned by private equity

• Independent practices: search near you with the filter set to independent, or browse independent vets by area. Independents are cheaper on average, though prices vary widely.
• Charity clinics: if money is tight, non-profit vets such as the PDSA offer free or reduced-cost care, usually means-tested.
• Other groups: CVS, Pets at Home and Linnaeus practices aren’t owned by private equity either, but they are large groups the CMA investigated.

Practices get sold, so check before you register. Each practice page shows when we last checked its owner. Where an independent listing says “no corporate owner found”, we haven’t found a group, but no official register has confirmed it yet.

Whoever owns your next vet, compare prices: large groups must publish price lists from 22 December 2026 and smaller practices from 22 March 2027. If you’re ready to move, our guide to switching vets covers each step.