MidEuropa Announces Sale of Regina Maria Group to Mehiläinen
MidEuropa, a leading private equity investor with deep roots in Central Europe, today announces an agreement to sell Regina Maria Group, a leading integrated private healthcare network serving over 3 million unique patients under the Regina Maria brand in Romania and the MediGroup brand in Serbia, to Mehiläinen, the largest private healthcare provider in Finland. The sale, which represents the largest ever healthcare services transaction in Central Europe, is subject to customary anti-trust clearance and is expected to close later this year.
Matthew Strassberg, Partner and Head of MidEuropa’s healthcare sector, who has led the firm’s highly successful healthcare investments for nearly two decades, commented:
“Regina Maria Group’s evolution during our ownership period reflects our proven playbook in healthcare services and across other focus sectors. We teamed up with and consistently backed the vision of a very entrepreneurial CEO who developed a highly talented and driven management team. We executed on a strategy of in-market consolidation complemented by selective international expansion. We invested in digitalisation to improve medical outcomes and patient experience and to fully integrate the scaled-up business. Under our ownership we achieved an approximately ten-fold increase in the group’s revenues and EBITDA. We are proud of our investment in improving access to affordable, multidisciplinary high-quality private healthcare to millions of patients. We want to thank Fady Chreih and his team of managers and key physicians for their dedication and enthusiasm and we wish them success as they work with Mehiläinen, their well-reputed management team, and experienced shareholders.”
Eugeniu Prodan, Principal at MidEuropa, commented:
“During our investment period, we committed over €300 million in investments to support the expansion of the company’s footprint from c.50 to over 400 facilities, including the construction of new hospitals offering comprehensive treatments, as well as investments in the latest innovations in diagnostics, robotic surgery, and radiotherapy. We also supported investment in digital innovation, which has resulted in over 1 million telemedicine consultations over the past 3 years. Today, Regina Maria Group offers over 6.5 million patient consultations per year, serving over 3 million unique patients, of whom over 880,000 benefit from employer-funded subscriptions.”
Fady Chreih, CEO of Regina Maria Group, said:
“We enjoyed and profited from our highly constructive partnership with MidEuropa. Having developed the business into a leading healthcare provider in the markets we serve, we look forward to the next chapter of our journey, benefiting from the experience and expertise of Mehiläinen, a highly reputable healthcare leader in the Nordics.”
MidEuropa’s exit from Regina Maria Group follows closely on the heels of the firm’s successful IPO of Diagnostyka on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, which raised gross proceeds in excess of €400 million, and saw the company achieve market capitalisation of over €1 billion on the day of the listing.
MidEuropa’s healthcare sector investments have been consistently recognised as strategically must-have assets. The firm’s notable past healthcare investments include Lux Med, the number one integrated private healthcare provider in Poland, sold to Bupa, Alpha Medical, the leading laboratory diagnostics group in Slovakia and Czech Republic, sold to Unilabs, Kent Hospital, a premium medical centre specialised in oncology and advanced-surgery in Turkey, sold to Acıbadem, and Walmark, the leading vitamins and supplements producer in Central Europe, sold to Stada.
The firm’s current portfolio includes Optegra, the leading pan-European ophthalmology platform, as well as FAMAR, the recently acquired contract and development manufacturing organisation (CDMO) serving pharmaceutical clients globally.
The transaction was executed by Eugeniu Prodan, Bogdan Bunea, Valentina Giambasu, and Ivo Cavrak (legal). Advisers to MidEuropa included: Rothschild & Co (financial adviser), A&O Shearman, RTPR, and Karanovic & Partners (legal counsel), PricewaterhouseCoopers (financial and tax), and LEK (commercial).