Turkey's Universal Hospitals Group, one of the country's largest healthcare services groups, is close to a deal to sell a significant stake to a foreign investor, its financial adviser told Reuters on Thursday.Universal Hospitals is in talks with four foreign financial groups on a partnership and may sign a deal in February, Okan Altug, a senior executive of Daruma Corporate Finance, said.
Mergers and acquisitions amounted to $29 billion in 2010 in Turkey, according to a report by Deloitte. And international investor interest in the Turkish healthcare sector is growing.
Daruma has previously advised on two separate partnership deals in the Turkish healthcare sector with international private equity firms from Qatar and the United States.
Altug said the healthcare services group envisages selling less than 50 percent of the company and the talks with one of the foreign groups is near conclusion. He declined to put a price tag on the deal.
Universal is one of Turkey's largest hospital groups. It owns 18 in Turkey and Albania, including the major German Hospital in Turkey's largest city Istanbul.
Altug said the interested groups were from the Middle East, the United States, Britain and Asia.
"Talks are underway with four groups currently, but we are making faster progress with one of them. I believe a deal will be signed in February", Altug added.
The company also declined to estimate a price for the stake which it was planning to sell.
There are already several examples of overseas investors taking sizeable stakes in Turkish hospital groups.
Dubai-based private equity firm Abraaj Capital owns half of a controlling stake in Turkey's Acibadem, and Carlyle owns 40 percent of Turkey's Medical Park Hospitals group.
Privately-owned QFIB announced in August last year that it had acquired a 40 percent stake in Turkey's second-largest healthcare provider, Memorial Health Group, in a joint venture with London-based private equity house Argus Capital.
NBK Capital, an investment fund owned by National Bank of Kuwait, acquired a 30 percent stake in World Eye Hospital Group and may eventually float the Turkish group.
Source : http://www.balkans.com/open-news.php?uniquenumber=88122 - Jan 07, 2011
