MedLife opens new units, to invest EUR 20 mln by 2013

MedLife has sealed an agreement with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), part of the World Bank group, for EUR 10 million of financing. This sum will be used in an investment program that will total EUR 20 million, with the firm supplying the other EUR 10 million, to be deployed until 2013.

“This investment reflects a strategic priority of the IFC – to support networks and medical suppliers who increase the penetration of accessible medical services in areas where offers like this are low,” said Guy Ellena, manager of the health & education division at the IFC, adding that the investment program would also increase the IFC’s current participation in MedLife’s capital.

The firm will make these investments in order to expand its operations in Romania by developing new projects. The first major one was finished last week as MedLife took over an 80 percent stake in the Clinic of Rapid Diagnosis in Brasov, for which it paid more than EUR 3 million. In the future, the investment program will see the erection of a large hospital which will include an emergency unit, five operating theaters and 140 beds. For this project, MedLife has rented a building of approximately 9,500 sqm in a central area of Bucharest.

The firm will also start a new project in Brasov, which will be rolled out in two stages. The first will be to launch the MedLife Hyperclinic, which will be the largest private medical center in Brasov, by the end of this summer. Secondly, a private hospital will be opened nearby. The project in Brasov will be developed on a surface of 2,800 sqm. MedLife runs 5 hyper-clinics in Romania, 5 analysis labs, 28 centers of general medicine, 6 centers with unique specialization and has collaborations with over 110 partner-clinics all over the country. Aside from the Marcu brothers, the firm has two more shareholders: IFC, the investment and consultancy division of the World Bank, and SGAM Eastern Europe, a private investment fund of Societe Generale Asset Management, subsidiary of Societe Generale Group.

Otilia Haraga