CUF acquires 75% of HPA Saúde

The Portuguese private healthcare provider CUF, which has a string of hospitals up and down the country, announced on Friday that it had signed a contract to acquire 75% of Grupo HPA Saúde.

Founded in 1996, it has five hospitals and 17 clinics in the Alentejo, Algarve and Madeira. In a communiqué sent to the Portuguese securities market regulator CMVM, CUF states “as is usually the case with a transaction of this nature, the completion of the acquisition process will be done over a four-year timeline, and depends on the verification that all of the conditions in the agreement are met as well as the agreement from the competition authority”.

The amount of the acquisition has not been divulged.

“This operation does not only represent a union of the two organisations with a vast experience in the health area, but also an opportunity to strengthen and expand the quality of the services provided”, said CUF CEO, Rui Diniz.

“For CUF this is a very significant step in its national growth strategy, providing access to differentiated and quality healthcare in all geographies”, he said in the same communiqué.

The announcement came after CUF, which is owned by the José de Mello Group, had announced in November that it had acquired 13 miMed clinics from the Sociedade Francisco Manuel dos Santos company, the holding fir the Soares dos Santos family which is the major shareholder of food distribution company Jerónimo Martins (Pingo Doce).

Here too the group did not reveal the acquisition value that will increase its network to 43 hospital units including hospitals, clinics and local doctors surgeries.