MedLife, CMU and Medicover vying over Euroclinic

Private medical service operators MedLife, Centrul Medical Unirea (Unirea Medical Center – CMU) and Medicover are interested in buying a stake in Euroclinic Hospital & Medical Centers, which operates the hospital by the same name in Bucharest, market sources told ZF.

The takeover of Euroclinic is very important for the market, considering it could change the ranking of the players and give the new shareholder the advantage of a private hospital in Bucharest.

“Three investors are interested. We will probably reach a more straightforward agreement over the coming month, so as to be able to reach a conclusion by the end of the summer,” said Catalin Popa, CEO of Euroclinic. He would not reveal the names of those involved, though.

The three are looking to get a majority interest and the value of the deal could be somewhere between 10 and 30 million euros, ZF estimates.

Euroclinic is held by Dutch financial group Eureko, while doctors from the Floreasca Hospital own stakes of less than 1%.

If it comes through, the takeover of Euroclinic will be the third transaction on the private medical services market in less than one year, after an investment fund of Société Générale bought into MedLife for 20 million euros in 2009, while Advent acquired the majority interest in CMU in a deal put a several dozens of millions of euros.