Feb01

Update 1 February 2022

Update 1 February 2022

After a number of weeks in lockdown, it was last week announced that restaurants and cafes can open again (until 2200), theaters and museums can open again, and that the public is again welcome at sports events. Number of infections is high and rising, but this is not expected to have major negative consequences for the healthcare system. Let us hope that the positive developments continue.

January has been a busy month in the Dutch healthcare sector. In this update we cover:

  • Another Dutch healthcare company sold to private equity. Who will be next?
  • Mentaal Beter acquisition gets green light from anti-competition authorities. What will be the impact on the commercial mental healthcare sector?
  • Ontzorgd Wonen saga finishes. Will we hear more from the previous owners?
  • Commercial mental healthcare provider takes over psychiatric department of regional hospital. Is this a new trend?
  • In our snapshot we give an overview of MoleMann Mental Health, a provider of ambulant mental healthcare services

Zorg van de Zaak sold to private equity

Zorg van de Zaak (ZvdZ) is a Dutch healthcare group consisting of a broad range of companies. The main focus is activities related to occupational healthcare for Dutch companies. Other subsidiaries provide services related to substance abuse counselling, reintegration services etc. ZvdZ is also currently the only private owner of a Dutch general hospital (Rode Kruis Ziekenhuis Beverwijk).

There have been rumors of a sale for some time due to advanced age and health issues of the founder Marius Touwens, who started the company in 1990. Recently it was announced that the company has been acquired by Parcom. Parcom is a Dutch private equity company with a wide range of investments in medium-sized Dutch companies. ZvdZ is their first investment in the healthcare space.

Zorg van de Zaak is a mini conglomerate providing a broad range of services. Not all these services, and certainly not the hospital, have a close fit with the company’s core occupational healthcare activities. Will certain assets be sold?

Mentaal Beter gets “go” for acquisition of HSK

As reported in the update from the beginning of January Mentaal Beter has acquired HSK. In the same update an overview was also given of the recent negative advice given by the anti-competition authorities (ACM) on two other deals in the Dutch healthcare sector. Based on this, it was interesting to see how the ACM would react to a merger of the two largest commercial providers of mental healthcare.

Apparently, the ACM did not think that this was an important or complex deal. After a short turnaround time the ACM last week announced that it was approving the merger. This means that the competitive landscape in the Dutch extramural mental healthcare sector now consists of one very large player and a number of smaller competitors such as Bosmans, MoleMann (see snapshot), etc. Will there be more acquisitions and consolidation between the smaller organisations?

Ontzorgd Wonen locations split up

As reported in the update of 7 December Ontzorgd Wonen Groep (OWG) was declared bankrupt after a long and turbulent history. The curator recently announced that three of the four nursing home locations that OWG still had in its possession at the end now have found new owners. It has been decided that the fourth location is no longer feasible as a nursing home (due to its small size).

It is interesting to see that the three locations have been acquired by a mixture of traditional and small nursing home operators and that none of the larger commercial organizations (Korian, Orpea, etc.) have used the opportunity to broaden their networks. One of the explanations for this is that Korian has already cherry-picked the eleven locations from the OWG portfolio that it found interesting in early 2020.

The original owners are still active through the holding company (The Blueprint Group) but are probably keeping a low profile in the healthcare sector for the time being.

Commercial mental healthcare provider acquires psychiatric activities of regional hospital

MoleMann Mental Health is a commercial provider of mental healthcare services (see snapshot). It was recently announced that MoleMann is acquiring the psychiatric care activities of the Antonius Hospital in Sneek (northeastern part of the country). The hospital claims that it has not been able to “develop” the psychiatric department due to staffing challenges and has therefore asked MoleMann to take over these activities. All relevant patients and staff will be transferred to MoleMann.

This is the second time that MoleMann conducts such an acquisition of activities from a general hospital, and it is an interesting move as it highlights the ongoing integration / rearrangement of activities between traditional (non-profit) and commercial operators. This is yet another example of the trend we can see with plannable operations steadily moving away from general hospitals to specialized clinics.

Snapshot of a commercial Dutch healthcare company: MoleMann Mental Health

MoleMann Mental Health was established in 2004 by two psychiatrists (Ronald Mann and Nico Moleman) who believed that psychiatric care could be improved by focusing more on the total environment of the patient. Nico Moleman has since left the company to help Buurtzorg set up an organization focusing on mental healthcare with small local teams – BuurtzorgT. MoleMann currently has fourteen locations and two co-hosted locations in hospitals (see above). In 2020 the company had revenues of €15.3 million and made a loss of €0.4 million. 75% of the revenues are from the insurance companies and 25% of revenues are financed by municipalities (youth care). The loss in 2020 was due to higher direct and indirect costs associated with COVID19. The direct costs came from  extra hours spent with clients due to the new situation which were not compensated by most of the insurance companies. MoleMann claims that insurance companies have paid these extra hours in 2021 more than compensating for the loss in 2020.

Each location is staffed by 10-20 professionals and provide a wide range of services. The company serves approximately 6.600 clients per year and has a total of two hundred staff.