Vantage Capital, Africa’s largest mezzanine fund manager, announced today that it has made a $28 million equity investment to acquire a significant minority shareholding in the Cliniques Internationales du Maroc Group (“CIM Santé Group”). The business was founded in 1994 by Professor Assad Chaara, an internationally renowned cardiologist who pioneered coronary angiography and catheterization in Morocco, and the company has since grown into one of Morocco’s leading healthcare groups.
CIM Santé Group also owns radiology centres, medical laboratories and laundry service companies in Marrakech and Tangier.
This transaction represents Vantage Capital’s 30th transaction across three generations of mezzanine funds with its portfolio of investments spread across ten countries in Africa.
In Morocco, CIM Santé Group is Vantage’s second investment in Morocco after its investment in Equity Invest, an IT group last year, and it’s the third investment in Francophone Africa.
Following the investment, Vantage Capital now becomes a minority with “significant shareholding,” in the Cliniques Internationales du Maroc Group (“CIM Santé Group”), the fund manager said in a statement.
The hospital which will be the group’s largest establishment to date will have 200 bed and 10 theatres, tripling the groups bed capacity and more than doubling the theatres.
Luc Albinski, Managing Partner at Vantage Capital, noted that “Vantage is proud to have concluded its largest growth-capital investment to date. It is always pleasing when our funds are applied towards building new, leading-edge infrastructure in Africa whether it takes the form of power plants, fibre networks or hospitals. But given the impact that world-class health care can have on patients and on their families, in many cases saving lives that would prematurely succumb to heart disease and other medical conditions, this investment, at this time, with the COVID epidemic raging, is a source of great joy and pride for the Vantage team.”
Driss Benabdeslam, Associate Partner at Vantage Capital, added, “We are proud to partner with the highly-regarded Chaara family and contribute with our funds and our ideas to the further growth of the Group. We are confident that in a few years’ time, CIM Santé Group will be one of the biggest private multi-disciplinary healthcare groups in Morocco.”