Pan-European oncology group Amethyst has entered the Portuguese market. It has acquired Júlio Teixeira, a private Portuguese oncology provider consisting of two clinics.

This brings the number of countries Amethyst operates in to seven: the UK, France, Italy, Austria, Poland, Romania and Portugal.

One of the Júlio Teixeira clinics is located in Porto, and the other is in Braga. The Porto clinic is partnered with (i.e will receive referrals from) CUF, Portugal’s largest for-profit hospital group; the Braga clinic with the public hospital in Braga.

“We’ve been speaking with Júlio Teixeira for quite a while now,” Stéphane Carré, Amethyst’s CEO, tells us. “The Portuguese market is relatively small compared to others in Europe, but it is a well organised and well administrated one. Since I first joined Amethyst we’ve been interested in entering the market, it was just a matter of identifying the right opportunity. I genuinely believe acquiring Júlio Teixeira was the best opportunity we could have found to enter the market. The centres enjoy a very strong reputation; they’re really considered to be among the best centres in radiotherapy.”

Carré says the two clinics will allow Amethyst to increase the number of patients the group treats annually by about three thousand — a 5-6% increase on its current volume of patients.

They will also provide a base for further expansion in the Portuguese market, both through organic growth and bolt-on acquisitions.

“We have identified a handful of potential acquisition targets across the country, in the main cities, and the southern part of the country. When we enter a new country this is always one of the preconditions,” Carré says.

Another benefit of the acquisition is that the Porto clinic is the first to be incorporated in Amethyst’s network that has ‘CyberKnife’ technology. Carré explains: “CyberKnife is a robotic radiosurgery system built on the same principles as a linear accelerator that enables the delivery of highly precise, targeted radiation doses to tumours while preserving surrounding healthy tissue. The integration of this capability into our network will not only enhance the treatment offering but also provide valuable expertise and knowledge that we can leverage across the wider group.”