CADE’s General Superintendence greenlighted deal with no restrictions; final approval is expected soon.
In just 15 days, the sale of Amil and the Américas hospital network for around R$11 billion to businessman José Seripieri Filho was approved by the National Regulatory Agency for Private Health Insurance and Plans (ANS) and the General Superintendence of the Administrative Council of Economic Defense (CADE), with no restrictions. The final stage should be the approval by the antitrust watchdog administrative court, which is expected to be soon confirmed.
Mr. Seripieri’s new company includes the third largest health insurance company, with 5.4 million health and dental plan users, a network of 31 hospitals comprising well-known brands such as Samaritano and Pró Cardíaco, and 28 medical clinics. The businessman made the acquisition as an individual and divested from the healthcare businesses he founded, Qualicorp and Qsaúde—which facilitated the process with regulatory agencies.
According to Paulo Rebello, president of ANS, the process was quick because there were no competitive issues and the businessman met requirements such as financial and economic proof.
“He came to the agency at the beginning of the year and, since last year, has shown transparency and an open dialogue. He0 bought the entire business: it’s a transfer of ownership. It is a very different situation from the attempt to sell only the individual portfolio, which we had blocked,”
Mr. Rebello said.
The deal is valued at around R$11 billion—the businessman is paying R$2 billion, while R$1 billion will come from bank loan. The remaining R$9 billion refers to tax debt and liabilities from the individual plan portfolio, comprised of around 500,000 users. Liabilities of individual plans are estimated around R$8 billion. The amount refers to the Provision for Insufficiency of Consideration/Premium (PIC), a reserve for future coverage of health plans whose monthly fees do not cover the respective medical expenses. The provision is not mandatory.
In the first nine months of 2023, Amil posted a net loss of R$1.3 billion. Mr. Seripieri’s plans to get the company back to black remain unclear. According to sources, one of the possibilities to make cash quickly would be to sell assets such as hospitals and medical clinics. A gradual improvement in operations with local management is also expected. In addition to Mr. Seripieri, who will run the new company on a daily basis, a name cited in market to assist him in the task is Grace Tourinho, a person of his trust at Qualicorp and who was at his side during the acquisition of Amil, in the United States.
One of Amil’s biggest issues is that the business was run remotely by UHG, with no autonomy of Brazilian managers. Simple processes, such as approvals of common procedures, were often slow. Acquired by UHG 10 years ago, the Brazilian unit had four CEOs—Edson Bueno, Cláudio Lottenberg, José Carlos Magalhães, and Ricardo Bottas. For about six months, from 2022 to 2023, the company remained with no CEO.
Source: Valor International
