Ambea IPO points the many to many more
Big nursing home and elderly care group Ambea plans to IPO on the NASDAQ Stockholm. Expect other big Nordic operators to follow suit. But what is their long-term future?
Fredrik Gren, CEO and President of Ambea told Healthcare Europa that the company was focused on an IPO and indicated that it was not pursing a dual strategy. The publication Dagens Industri suggested that the IPO could occur as soon as the end of March or early April.
The company has announced five cornerstone investors: Investment AB Oresund, Carve Capital AB, Catella Fondforvaltning AB, Didner & Gerge Fonder AB and RAM ONE AB, have made combined commitments worth SEK 750m (€78m), roughly 15% of the shares.
Advisers tell us that the two largest Finnish hospital/outpatient players, Mehilainen and Terveystalo, could follow suit before the year end. In Sweden, Ambea will join hospital group Capio, elderly care group Attendo and care group Humana which floated in March 2016. Medicover which covers outpatient activity across Eastern Europe and soon India also plans a Stockholm IPO in the second quarter of 2017.
The IPOs reflect the fact that private equity owners have been under political attack in the region – it’s much less politically contentious if you can show Swedes and Finns that they as citizens, through their pension funds, are the owners of these companies. They also reflect the fact that outsiders such as French care home groups and international hospital players have generally not been impressed by the EBITDA margins in the Nordics.
All this does beg the question what is the future of the Nordic private healthcare sector? These are small markets which have been consolidated. A political risk does remain. Recently, none of these operators have ventured beyond their regional market. Yet they have a lot of managerial and healthcare delivery expertise, and will have to start exporting. Or are they destined to turn into cosy, low risk assets for pension funds?
We would welcome your thoughts on this story. Email your views to Max Hotopf or call 0207 183 3779.
