The signing of an agreement between CVC Capital and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority for the sale of (at least) 50% of the healthcare portfolio operated through the Hellenic Healthcare Group is considered a matter of a few weeks (or even days).

It is more or less known to the community that CVC Capital's executives have been, for almost two years, in a logic of disinvestment from the sector, and to this end they have been discussing with Greek and foreign companies.  It is also known that from mid-2023 and from the moment it became known that the bar for the price was set at €2 billion, any contacts with 2-3 domestic players stopped, resulting in a consequent shift exclusively to the international market. 

CVC Capital's investment in the healthcare sector was built methodically: with the acquisition of Metropolitan (2017), Iaso (2017) to proceed a year later to the big deal by acquiring Hygeia from Marfin Investment Group. Then (2018) the price of €204.4 mn. had been considered overvalued in a sector with relative risk and modest returns, which in order to cover its costs would have had to exceed the reasonable 5-7 year timeframe that a fund invests to then resell at a premium. In particular, the fund had offered a price in ebitda terms of 13 times the group's earnings, expensive by the standards of the time. But in the world of funds, it is all a matter of timing and supply and demand.

The whole project was implemented in the domestic market through HHG, which treats more than 1.1 million patients annually. This includes Health, Metropolitan Hospital, Metropolitan General Metropolitan Hospital, Lito and Creta InterClinic, Y-Logimed, a medical device marketing company, AlphaLAB Genetics and Genomics Center, and Business Care, which provides occupational safety and health services to companies and organizations. Dimitris Spyridis and Alex Fotakidis are the two influential figures with a catalytic effect on CVC Capital's expansion strategy in the Greek market. In terms of total value (enterprice value), it took—over a period of one and a half years—around €610 million to build the portfolio (only for the Hygeia deal did it reach a total of €420 million). A turning point for CVC Capital/HHHG was the withdrawal from the SA, as the management, free of other shareholders/investors and with different terms/conditions for informing the public, engaged in aggressive capital leverage moves that in 4 years yielded twice as much (of the initial cost). 

Now, how do they tie CVC Capital to Arab funds? Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Public Investment Fund are two of the fund's most active (co)investors and have worked together on several projects. What—presumably—will the deal to be announced include—in November (?) at the latest, a 50%+1 share to 55% portfolio allocation at €1bn, with management remaining under HHG? Reasonable to expect the entry to be made on the fund's "books" in FY2024.