Penta invests in Slovak regional hospitals

Penta, the Central European investment group, acquired an ownership interest in Estate Consult, the 100% owner of Svet zdravia. Svet zdravia operates ten hospitals in the Slovak towns of Humenné, Svidník, Spišská Nová Ves, Rožňava, Trebišov, Michalovce, Partizánske and Vranov nad Topľou, with branches in Medzilaborce and Stropkov.

The value of the transaction will not be disclosed and the closing is contingent on an approval of the market protection authority.

“Ten years of experience in the Slovak healthcare sector tell us that regional hospitals can be more efficient and offer better healthcare, with better conditions for patients and the staff,” said Eduard Maták, Partner in Penta, who is in charge of all the group’s healthcare investments.

The above hospitals closed last year with a loss of EUR 2.66 million; for the first half of the current year, they were EUR 1.02 million in the red. On the other hand, the sum of the hospitals’ liabilities was EUR 18.5 million as of June 30 of this year. The hospitals posted revenues of EUR 42.1 million in the first half of 2011.

“After the acquisition, we are planning a number of measures to improve the hospitals’ financial management, especially the implementation of centralised purchasing or optimisation of selected service and support functions, such as cleaning, laundering, and catering. The network effect will allow for efficient centralisation of these services. The measures will seek to improve the quality of care in the medical and non-medical sphere,” adds Maták.