Healthcare Locums (HCL) has acquired BBL (Europe), a specialist recruiter of hospital doctors and GPs, for £10.5m.

The acquisition includes the business and assets but not the liabilities of BBL, a company which had a turnover of £23.9m and an operating profit of £800,000 for the year ending May 2005.

The deal is part of HCL's strategy to gain maximum exposure to the higher-margin end of the healthcare market.

BBL, which has offices in Ilford, Southampton, Manchester and Birmingham, is HCL's seventh acquisition since it was founded in April 2003.

The BBL acquisition is to be paid for with £5m cash immediately and a further £3m of HCL's shares, listed on the Alternative Investment Market. Two further instalments of cash or shares at HCL's discretion will be paid 12 and 24 months after completion.

HCL, which generated turnover of more than £18m in the first half of 2005, will be retaining BBL employees but moving the company's headquarters to merge with its own in Loughton, Essex.

“BBL has a very strong GP locum division and it's a market we've been trying to get into over the last eight months,” said HCL chief executive Kate Bleasdale. “It's a sector worth £95m a year, but I estimate this will increase in value over the next five years on account of our ageing population and the primary care sector's increasing control of the NHS budget.

“I want to double the number of BBL consultants in six months. Every company I've ever bought has doubled over three years.”