March 15 (SeeNews) - Romanian privately-owned medical services provider MedLife [BSE: M] said on Thursday it has acquired 80% shareholding interest in local medical services provider Solomed Group for an undisclosed sum.
With this acquisition, MedLife enters the market segment of ambulatory medical services in Arges county, southern Romania, MedLife said in a statement.
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"In the future we will continue to strengthen our position at the national level through both acquisitions as well as green field projects," MedLife CEO and president Mihai Marcu said.
The Solomed Group was set up in 1997 and is one of the leading local medical operators in the region of Arges county. The group operates five clinics - three in Pitesti, one each in Costesti and Curtea de Arges, and a laboratory in Pitesti.
In 2017, Solomed posted a turnover of approximately 5.2 million lei.
"For us, this partnership represents a great opportunity for business development, an important step in the company's development through the integration of processes, benefiting from know-how in the medical and management area, and at the same time, we will continue to provide patients with better healthcare. At the same time, this partnership offers us the opportunity to enter a new market segment expanding at the local level - the medical subscription segment," Solomed general manager, Cristian Ştefan Lamba, said.
The acquisition of Solomed's majority stake represents MedLife's 19th acquisition to date. In February, MedLife took over Ghencea Medical Center in Bucharest.
MedLife reported a pro-consolidated 638 million lei ($169 million/ 137 million euro) turnover in 2017, up with 27% on the year. For this year, the company is targeting an increase of over 20% of its turnover.
In December, MedLife increased its share capital by 67.56 million lei to finance organic development as well as new acquisitions.
In December 2016, MedLife raised 230 million lei through a fully subscribed initial public offering of a 44% stake.
MedLife shares traded 1.46% higher at 33.7 lei on the BVB as at 1015 CET on Thursday.
(1 euro=4.6622 lei)