January 30 (SeeNews) - Romanian privately-owned medical services provider MedLife Group [BSE:M] said on Wednesday it has acquired 51% interest in Hungarian peer Rozsakert Medical Center (RMC) Group - its first acquisition outside Romania.
Through the acquisition, MedLife consolidates its position and becomes one of the largest private healthcare providers in Central and Eastern Europe, it said in a statement.
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"The medical team in Hungary is very valuable and we believe that together we will strengthen the MedLife system to provide high-quality medical services to patients both in Romania and Hungary. The investments allocated for this stage amount to 4-5 million euro ($4.58-$5.15 million), and in the next period we will look at other expansion opportunities," MedLife president and CEO Mihai Marcu said.
RMC is one of the top providers of private medical services in Hungary, with more than 40,000 patients using its services every year, according to the statement. The group has a multidisciplinary clinic equipped with a small surgery room and a dental center.
RMC, founded in 2001, currently has a team of over 250 doctors and nurses. The group recorded a turnover of 4.2 million euro in 2017.
The domestci acquisition plan of MedLife Group will continue in 2019, Marcu said. "In 2019 we will focus on digitization, on providing a second opinion at national level and on the development of centers of excellence at the level of the 10 hospital units, for more specialties such as neurosurgery, cardiac surgery, abdominal wall surgery, gynecology and sports traumatology," he explained.
Since 2009, MedLife has opened or bought over 83 medical units.
Its net profit rose by 33.9% year-on-year in the first nine months of 2018, reaching 12.77 million lei ($3.1 million/ 2.7 million euro).
In November, MedLife signed an agreement with four local banks to lift the upper limit on the volume of a syndicated loan to 66 million euro ($75 million) from previous 56 million euro.
MedLife shares traded 1.14% higher at 26.7 lei as at 1210 CET on Wednesday on the Bucharest Stock Exchange.
(1 euro=4.7555 lei)