Global Health Partner acquires Stockholm Gastro Center

Global Health Partner (STO:GHP) has acquired Stockholm Gastro Center, a specialist clinic with operations within medical gastroenterology and endoscopy located at Sophiahemmet in Stockholm. "The acquisition of Stockholm Gastro Center is a good complement to the obesity surgery business that we run at Kirurgkliniken and Bariatric Center Stockholm in Sophiahemmet's facilities. This is a combination of businesses that we also have at our clinics in Lund and Prague and where we see good coordination and expansion opportunities," says Per Båtelson, Global Health Partner's CEO.

Stockholm Gastro Center was formed in 2008 in connection with a major procurement process within Stockholm County Council and today incorporates a gastro centre, an IBD unit and an endoscopy unit. The company's former owners, the specialist doctors Robert Löfberg and Bengt Lavö, who both have very long gastroenterological experience, are staying on as co-owners. Global Health Partner's acquired share is 60%.

Stockholm Gastro Center has 15 full-time employees. The company has a turnover of approximately 30 MSEK and good profitability, well in line with Global Health Partner's other specialist clinics in a mature phase. In addition to major specialist care agreements with Stockholm County Council the company also has contracts with most of the leading insurance companies. Stockholm Gastro Center has a good financial position, with an equity/assets ratio of about 40% and positive net cash. The company will be consolidated in Global Health Partner as of 1 October 2010 and will have a marginal but positive effect on the Group's results and sales.

Stockholm Gastro Center is situated next to Global Health Partner's clinic Bariatric Center Stockholm at Sophiahemmet, and medical gastroenterology and endoscopy have close links with obesity surgery. Today there is an increasing demand for gastroenterological specialist care and endoscopy, in particular coloscopy, where the colon is examined, for example to rule out cancer. Stockholm Gastro Center also provides specialist care within the area of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), an increasingly common health problem that today affects approximately 1% of the population. More than 1,500 patients with IBD are today given care at Stockholm Gastro Center, which also runs clinical research within this area.