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Interview: Attila Vegh, CEO, Penta Hospitals Group

By 2025 Penta Hospitals Group (PHG) owned by private equity house Penta Investments, plans to more than triple sales to over €1bn. But growth could be even faster, says its new CEO, Attila Vegh, a former boss of three large English NHS hospital trusts. The real ambition of the group, a merger of Svet Zdravia in Slovakia, the Polish chain EMC and Penta’s hospitals in Czech Republic, is even greater than the sales forecasts suggest. Much of the growth he says will come from working with the public sector. Vegh says that Penta wants to be “a disrupter, a company which introduces best practice and innovation,” thus persuading public payors to rethink their attitude to the private sector. So how do you do that in a region which is becoming increasingly statist and hostile to international capitalism?

Could Eurofins break the Unilabs impasse?

Bioanalytic testing outfit Eurofins Scientific has just raised €200m through a private placement with La Caisse des Dépôts et placement du Québec (“CDPQ”), one of Canada’s largest institutional fund managers. CDPQ and other institutions have also said they are happy to dip into their pockets to fund more acquisitions. West European lab/imaging group Unilabs could be a target.

Permira to build new imaging services provider

Private equity house Permira is backing a merger between Mesa Medical, a Pan-European supplier of third party maintenance and used imaging kit, and Asteral, which is the largest provider of managed equipment services around imaging equipment in the UK. The deal will alarm suppliers like Siemens, GE and Philips.

What are the prospects for nursing homes in Eastern Europe?

Batipart, the big property group which is a big investor in Korian, is quietly exploring the East European care home market with Senior Group, a small company ran out of Paris by Nicolai Kobliakov. We talk to him about demand for private beds in East Europe and his plans to launch an invasion of prefabricated cottages for the elderly in France. Kobliakov spoke at a recent session at property conference MIPIM arranged by Stephan Pichon, the healthcare proerty expert at Your Care Consult in Paris.

Bribery in healthcare

The vast majority of bribes paid by citizens in Europe have to do with access to healthcare, according to an EU anti-corruption report. Healthcare and pharma businesses in Europe are also the most likely of any industry, with 77% agreeing, to think that corruption is widespread in their country. The report puts the total cost of corruption in the EU at €120bn - a little less than the annual EU budget. We look at the underlying numbers.

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