Penta, the Central European investment group, has a long-term interest in being active in the Slovak public health insurance system. To this end, it has decided to increase its share in the Dôvera health insurance company. Penta reached an agreement with Prefto Holding Limited to acquire its 50% share in Dôvera to become the sole owner of Dôvera.
The transaction is subject to approval by the Slovak Anti-monopoly Office and the Healthcare Surveillance Authority. The purchase price shall not be disclosed.
“The main reason behind the transaction were different opinions between Penta and Prefto regarding future involvement in Dôvera. These emerged as a result of the Slovak Government’s initiative aimed at introducing a single health insurer system in Slovakia. Penta intends to be active in both healthcare and health insurance. We do not agree with the current Government initiative and we do not want to sell our share to the Government,” said Eduard Maták, a Partner in Penta.
“We are convinced that the possibility of choice and competition between state-owned and private health insurers brings increased efficiency and quality of healthcare and related services. This attempt at introducing a state-owned monopoly is a clear step back, which will not improve healthcare financing and will negatively affect both patients and medical professionals. We intend to do everything to prevent the end of free selection of health insurer in Slovakia,” Eduard Maták added.
“We welcome our agreement with Penta as Prefto is not a long-term or strategic healthcare investor. We are also aware of the risk of a significant change of rules in the public health insurance sector and so we decided to end our involvement in Dôvera,” said Daniel Futej of Prefto Holding Limited.
Dôvera is the second largest health insurer in Slovakia. It serves more than 1.4 million clients and its market share is 27 %. Penta has been a Dôvera shareholder since 2002. Prefto has held a 50% share in Dôvera since 2009, when Dôvera merged with another health insurer, Apollo.