November 11 (SeeNews) - Romanian privately-owned medical services group MedLife [BSE: M] said on Thursday it signed an agreement for the purchase of 100 of the shares of OcoCard Hospital located in the central city of Brasov for an undisclosed sum.
Discussions for this acquisition were initiated at the end of 2019 but were then postponed in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and resumed earlier this year, MedLife said in a statement filed with the Bucharest Stock Exchange, BVB.
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The transaction is pending approval from Romania's competition authority. Once approved, it could become the MedLife Group's second largest transaction in 2021, after the acquisition of Neolife Medical Centre announced at the end of October.
Founded in 2012, OncoCard Hospital is based on an innovative concept of integrative medicine that starts in the diagnostic phase of the oncologic patient and covers the entire period of specific active therapies. From its opening until now, investments worth 24 million euro have been made in OncoCard Hospital Brasov. In 2020, the company registered a consolidated turnover of 56.4 million lei, up by 21% compared to 2019.
"As we announced, we have 2-3 more important M&A transactions in progress. We are investing and we aim to enlarge the network in Romania, which is already substantially larger than any other private network, with a much higher coverage at county and Bucharest level," MedLife Group CEO and president, Mihai Marcu, said.
"At the same time, we want to strengthen our presence outside borders. After more than ten years in which we were a national leader, it is high time to prove that we can become one of the regional leaders as well," Marcu added.
MedLife shares traded 2.19% higher at 23.3 lei ($5.4/ 4.7 euro) on the BVB as at 1344 CET on Thursday.
(1 euro=4.9489 lei)