The rise (and fall) of Europe’s largest care home operators
With only 12% of Europe’s for-profit care home market held by the two big French consolidators, other international platforms have also emerged. We look at how the market position of Europe’s 11 largest for-profit operators changed from 2012-2019.
The infographic below shows annual revenues for the continent’s largest care home groups, including their other business segments (rehabilitation, domiciliary and acute care).
Orpea and Korian clearly lead the pack but ICG-owned DomusVi has undergone a flurry of huge mergers to lie comfortably in third. Pan-Nordic listed players Attendo and Ambea follow closely behind while French-Belgian combo Colisee-Armonea and German number two Alloheim have grown rapidly in the last 2-3 years under PE ownership.
Much of the growth has come from entering new markets, as in the case of DomusVi, Colisee-Armonea and Gruppo Kos. The one single-country players of scale lie in Germany and the UK, which is unsurprising considering they are the continent’s largest for-profit markets, by some distance.
In the UK, the trajectory has been up as often as it has been down. Bupa (excluded as it is a non-profit) divested many of its care homes a few years ago and Four Seasons is in-administration and undergoing something of a carve-up (see our recent stories). If our chart started a year earlier, it would also include what was then the UK’s largest chain, Southern Cross, which collapsed in 2012.
We would welcome your thoughts on this story. Email your views to Cameron Murray or call 0207 183 3779.
