On Tuesday, Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (MIRA), the alternative assets investor that manages some EUR 120 billion ($142 billion) on behalf of its clients, announced that it has acquired Spanish private healthcare group Viamed Salud from a group of private investors. Price details for the transaction, which was made via Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund 6, were not made public.
Aging population, private demand
Viamed Salud owns and operates a network of essential healthcare facilities across nine Spanish cities. These include nine acute care hospitals, three convalescent centers, 15 outpatient clinics, and one geriatric care home. These facilities are largely concentrated in the regions of Rioja, Aragon and Andalusia. In addition to specialized acute care fields including trauma, internal medicine, cardiology, gynecology, obstetrics and urology, Viamed Salud’s outpatient clinics and convalescent centers also provide routine diagnostic, treatment and rehabilitation services.
Commenting on the acquisition, MIRA Head of Iberia Juan Caño said: “Long-term trends such as an aging population and a growing private healthcare sector in Spain will see operators like Viamed Salud become an increasingly important component of the healthcare system. We look forward to supporting Viamed Salud’s long-term development, building on its reputation for state-of-the-art facilities and best in class equipment and technology utilised by leading medical teams.”
Marcial López-Diéguez, Viamed Salud co-founder, added, “Over the years we have been in business, we have firmly established our leadership role in the sector based on values such as respect, generosity, team work, and commitment. With the arrival of MIRA, I am confident that Viamed Salud will continue to grow and build on its position as a top-tier healthcare group.”
Viamed Salud healthcare group adds to Macquarie’s sizable portfolio of assets in Spain, where the firm has invested in essential infrastructure for more than decade across utilities, energy, transportation and digital infrastructure. Other MIRA portfolio companies in Spain include CLH Group, Europe’s second-largest (and the world’s seventh-largest) petroleum storage and transportation company, parking lot operator Empark, and electric utility Viesgo. Overall, MIRA manages 151 portfolio business, around 500 commercial real estate properties, and nearly 5 million hectares of farmland.
MIDIS touch
In other infrastructure sector news, Macquarie’s Infrastructure Debt Investment Solutions (MIDIS) business—one of the world’s largest infrastructure debt funds—announced last week that it has raised about EUR 1.2 billion ($1.4 billion from institutional investors for its sub-investment grade infrastructure debt strategy.
The strategy’s portfolio is invested across utilities, energy, renewables and transportation infrastructure sectors, and includes debt investments in 14 high quality borrowers in the United Kingdom, United States, Italy, Finland and the Netherlands with an average internal rating of BB-.
The strategy, which drew commitments from 21 pension funds and insurance companies in the U.K., Korea, Japan, Italy and Portugal, has enjoyed particular momentum in recent months. In June, Macquarie announced that MIDIS had already raised more than EUR 2.7 billion ($3.2 billion) for a United Kingdom inflation-linked infrastructure debt strategy, just a couple of months after successfully closing its Macquarie Global Infrastructure Debt Fund with $645 million in investor commitments.