Erste commits €32m loan to Polish hospital deal

Erste Group, the Austrian bank, has made its first hospital financing in Central and Eastern Europe through a 10-year €32 million investment loan in support of the acquisition of Poland’s Medicover Property & Development by Luxembourg’s Celox Group.

Medicover Property & Development is the owner of Medicover Hospital in Warsaw, part of Medicover’s growing portfolio of healthcare operations in Poland. A statement released by Erste said the hospital was the first private medical facility in Poland to offer “such a wide range of hospital services” including a “fee for service” arrangement for private individuals.

The hospital has 180 beds, five fully equipped surgery rooms and a six-room private hotel for family members or private treatment.

Medicover Group, which is the largest private healthcare service provider in Central and Eastern Europe, serves more than 6,000 companies and 400,000 people in Poland, East Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Ukraine.

“Medicover is uniquely positioned in the Polish market as it owns a substantial hospital infrastructure as well as its own insurance license allowing for a fully integrated value chain,” says Werner Weihs-Raabl, head of group infrastructure finance at Erste Group, in the statement.

The private medical sector in Central and Eastern Europe is growing fast to fill the gap left by insufficient public funding, which is expected to decline further in the years ahead. According to research by PMR Publications, a market intelligence firm, the region’s private healthcare market is currently worth €24 billion and is growing at 20 percent per annum.