Largest private healthcare operator in Romania makes new acquisition

MedLife, the largest private healthcare operator in Romania, has acquired a 55% stake in Valdi Medica, the owner of the Humanitas hospital in Cluj-Napoca, a city in Western Romania. This is the 16th acquisition MedLife makes, after acquiring private clinic network Anima. Starting 2009, the group has opened or acquired 83 medical units. This April, it acquired an 80% stake in Almina Trading, a local company with eight medical centers. It also took full control of Timisoara-based Stem Cells Bank in June. The Cluj-Napoca private hospital opened at the end of 2016. It offers mainly medical specialties focused on surgical treatments. It has two operating rooms, an anesthesia department and an intensive care one. MedLife entered the Cluj-Napoca market in 2008, when it opened a medical tests lab. It followed with its first MedLife hyper-clinic in the city in 2015. With the acquisition of the Humanitas hospital, it adds hospital services to its local portfolio. “By acquiring the majority stake in Valdi Medica, we become the first national operator to own a hospital in Cluj.[…] Together with our partners, we plan to develop the hospital substantially in the coming period and to become the largest private provider of integrated medical services in Cluj,” Mihai Marcu, the president and CEO of MedLife, said. “By co-opting MedLife into our shareholding structure, we plan to move to a new development phase for the Humanitas hospital, by expanding the continuous hospitalization department, developing the integrated outpatient section and establishing a one-day hospital section for patients undergoing minimally invasive interventions,” Adrian Bărbos, a founding member of the Humanitas hospital, explained. MedLife reported a consolidated turnover of EUR 112 million in 2016, up 29% over the previous year. editor@romania-insider.com