October 19 (SeeNews) - Romanian privately-owned medical services provider MedLife [BSE: M] has signed an agreement for the acquisition of a 100% stake in local private healthcare operator Polisano for an undisclosed sum.
Through this acquisition, MedLife continues to strengthen the market and also the shareholders' mandate at the last AGM meeting, where the share capital increase and issuance of bonds for the acquisition and development of the company were approved," MedLife said in a statement filed with the Bucharest Stock Exchange, BVB on late Wednesday.
You can subscribe to our M&A newsletter here
The transaction is now pending approval from Romania's anti-trust body.
"If all conditions are met and the acquisition of Polisano Clinics is completed, MedLife will have 6,300 employees and will be the employer of approximately 5% of doctors with Free Practice Authorization in Romania and probably a similar percentage of nurses," MedLife general manager Mihai Marcu said.
Founded in the 1990s, Polisano is the first fully integrated medical group in Romania. It includes a series of four clinics with its own laboratories located in Bucharest and Sibiu, a private hospital – Polisano European Hospital in Sibiu, one in vitro fertilization centre and the biggest private maternity in Romania's historic central area of Transylvania.
The company currently has over 500 employees and posted a turnover of about 80 million lei ($20.4 million/ 17.4 million euro) in 2016.
MedLife made its first purchase in 2011 by buying the majority stake in the PDR Brasov group of companies. In the seven years after, the company has successfully completed 16 acquisitions, with the last one being the Humanitas Hospital in Cluj.
MedLife's net profit tripled year-on-year in the first half of 2017, reaching 6.4 million lei.The turnover increased by 29% on the year to 301.09 million lei, led by a significant growth in all business lines, manly dental, clinics and hospital segments, and by acquisitions made in the last two years.
In December 2016, MedLife raised 230 million lei through a fully subscribed initial public offering (IPO) of a 44% stake.
MedLife shares were traded 0.55% higher at 36.7 lei on the BVB as at 1020 CET on Thursday.
(1 euro=4.5841 lei)