Romar group of firms, operating in the private medical services industry, plans to invest in eight new medical centres, and its financing needs for the next three years are put at 30-40m euros.
"We're in talks for at least eight projects," Erghin Hagi Calil, a shareholder in Romar, told ZF. He specified financing needs could be 60% covered from European funds earmarked for regional development programmes, while the rest of 40% is likely to be raised from investment funds.
The group of firms includes six entities united under the umbrella of Romar Holding firm of Cyprus, in which RC2 investment fund owns a 40% stake it acquired in 2007. The rest of shares are controlled by another entity of Cyprus in which Hagi Calil holds stock. Early this year, RC2, listed on the LSE, published information on its intention to sell the stake it owns in the medical services provider.
"The current medical services market is on an upward trend and needs financing, in the context where demand for services is much greater than supply. (...) We prefer to continue our development policy at a fast rate. There are no other known alternatives beside investment funds," stated the businessman.
Hagi Calil said that one of the benefits of attracting an investment fund as a shareholder was access to ten times higher banking loans than in traditional cases. This was one of the reasons that prompted Hagi Calil's decision to lure an investment fund. Another one referred to "accelerating the process of shifting to the organisational culture of a multinational".
The market of private medical services was extremely appealing to private equity funds in 2007, when they paid, according to ZF calculations, over 30m euros for Romanian clinics. In 2008-early 2009, no significant deals were registered. Upon completion, Romar's takeover should revive the M&A market in this industry.
