The French fund Vivalto Partners has put the health group Vivalto Santé up for sale, owner of Lusíadas Saúde in Portugal and the Spanish Ribera Salud, which manages Cascais Hospital through a public-private partnership. The divestment process, which will be carried out in full and without fragmentation, aims to reduce the group's debt and is being conducted by investment bank Houlihan Lokey, with the start scheduled for the last quarter of this year.
Vivalto Santé is the third largest group of private clinics and hospitals in France, operating also in Portugal and six other countries, including Switzerland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The group has approximately 240 hospitals and health centers, more than 24 thousand healthcare professionals and provides care to approximately six million patients per year.
In 2024, the group's gross financial debt reached 1.458 billion euros, an increase from the 1.377 billion euros recorded the previous year, due to restructuring after the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite the increase in debt, the group achieved an operating profit of 278.9 million euros, 7.6% more than in 2023, which values the company at approximately 2.5 billion euros.
The news comes more than eight months after it was revealed that Vivalto Santé was looking for a new financial investor and had begun selling assets in the Extremadura and Murcia regions in Spain, to improve the balance sheet. In early 2024, CEO Emmanuel De Geuser stated that 30% of the group was "physician-controlled," which allows the units to be managed by all stakeholders in the process.
