Last night, Sir Richard Banson stepped into the GP healthcare world, by purchasing a majority stake in an NHS walk-in centre operator, only to witness the shares in the company he is taking up a partnership in lose about an eighth of their value.

The business tycoon's Virgin Group purchased a 75.1% stake in the medical unit of Assura Group, which is UK's largest private owner of GP surgeries.

Sir Richard, who has managed to establish a new Virgin Healthcare business to run the venture, shared that Virgin has identified primary healthcare as a beneficial opportunity, with Britain's population getting older.

"Healthcare is a sector that the Virgin Group has been interested in entering for some time but we have always said that the partner and the timing had to be right", he said.

Once the deal was made public, shares of Assura slipped by 6-and-a-half pence, or 12.62%.

Under the terms of the agreement, Virgin is paying Assura 4 Million Pounds for the stake.