March 6 (SeeNews) - Romanian private healthcare services provider Regina Maria on Monday forecast a 30% rise in its annual turnover in 2017, to 118.3 million euro ($125.2 million), backed by both organic growth and acquisitions.
In 2017, Regina Maria aims to increase its corporate customers portfolio by 15%, focusing mainly on small and medium-sized enterprises, the company said in a press release.
"In recent years, Regina Maria has been at the forefront of major transactions in the market, and in 2017 we will continue to expand. We have a procurement budget similar to last year's and we are looking at all opportunities in the market with the greatest openness," CEO Fady Chreih said.
In 2016, the company posted a turnover of 91 million euro, up 40% on the previous year.
In February, Regina Maria said it has invested 2 million euro since the beginning of 2017 in a new polyclinic in Bucharest and in the acquisition of local peers Al-Medica Berlin and Ixia Medical. Regina Maria's expansion plan for the beginning of the year also included the acquisition of two Romanian healthcare services providers.
In 2016, Regina Maria added new units through acquisitions in Romania.
In November, it invested 1.7 million euro in a medical campus in Targu Mures, in the north-central part of Romania. In June, it opened its second polyclinic in the southern city of Pitesti, in Arges county, following a 0.7 million euro investment, aiming to serve over 29,000 customers.
In April, it took over Helios medical centre, based in the southern city of Craiova, for an undisclosed sum and invested 1 million euro in the centre's imaging services unit. Also in spring 2016, it invested 2 million euro in an imaging centre in its hospital in Bucharest.
In March, it bought Bucharest-based private hospital Ponderas, which specializes in metabolic surgery and announced a 15 million euro investment in its first hospital in Cluj-Napoca, in central Romania. The hospital, Regina Maria's biggest investment outside Bucharest, will open in the first half of 2017.
In November 2015, Romania's competition authority approved the acquisition of Regina Maria by investment fund Mep Capital. Sources close to the transaction have told local media that the price of the deal probably tops 100 million euro.
Mep Capital Investments is part of investment fund Mid Europa Partners which is focused on investments in Central and Eastern Europe and Turkey.
Regina Maria was founded in 1995 under the name of CMU. In 2010 it merged with Euroclinic, part of Dutch-based financial services group Eureko, and changed its name. Currently, it operates 35 polyclinics, four hospitals, eight medical campuses and 180 clinics in Bucharest, Cluj, Brasov, Constanta, Bacau and Pitest and has 3,500 employees, according to data published on the corporate website.
($=0.9444 euro)