UAE healthcare firm buys $163m stake in Spanish fertility clinic
UAE-based healthcare firm NMC Health has announced a deal to purchase an 86.4 percent percent stake in a Spanish fertility clinic for €143 million ($163 million).
The deal for Clinica Eugin was revealed after the company reported a pre-tax profit worth $77.5 million in 2014, an increase from $69.1 million the previous year. Revenue also rose from $550.9 million to $643.9 million.
According to a statement, the acquisition of Eugin will aid the company "significantly" in its new expansion strategy.
Further acquisition opportunities are also a possibility as the company is reportedly in "preliminary stage" talks to increase its presence across the UAE and Gulf region.
CEO BR Shetty said: "This transaction offers NMC the opportunity to become the leading integrated women's health provider from fertility through obstetrics and paediatrics in the UAE, and also establishes a foothold for the company in the growing medical tourism market."
Eugin is one of the largest fertility clinics in Europe and the established leader in cross-border fertility treatment with patients from the largest Western European countries, as well as the MENA region.
The shares are to be acquired from ProA Capital, Eugin’s founders and members of the Eugin management team.
Infertility is thought to be a growing concern in the Middle East thanks to a surge in lifestyle diseases such as obesity and diabetes, interfamily relations and late marriages.
According to a report by the World Health Organisation in 2010, fertility rates in all six Gulf countries dropped significantly between 1990 and 2008.
In the UAE particularly, a UN report said the Arab state had one of the fastest declining birth rates in the world, falling from 5.7 children per woman to less than two in the last 30 years.
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