PZU buys stake in Warsaw hospital

“We have made the next step into executing our previously announced investment plans in the medical segment”, Ryszard Trepczyński, deputy president of PZU, said. “This is the first but by no means the last hospital in our portfolio. We want to and will strengthen our investments in the sector”, Trepczyński added.

PZU unveiled its new strategy for the next three years at the start of 2015. The aim is transform the insurer into a group based on three pillars: insurance, asset management and healthcare.

PZU is by far the largest insurer in the domestic insurance market and with margins in the sector declining in recent years the company has been weighing up how to diversify its business model.

CM Gamma, set up in 2013, specialises in diagnostic imaging and complex treatment of patients with musculoskeletal ailments. It is also one of the most modern private hospitals in Poland specialising in orthopedics.

PZU previously bought shares in Polish medical companies, Orlen Medica and Elvita, and in 2013 bought almost an 25 percent stake in EMC Instytut Medyczny, the largest owner of private hospitals in Poland, on the Warsaw bourse.

“Medicine is a fast-growing sector in Poland, which is why we are thinking about further acquisitions”, ccording to Włodzimierz Bieliński, head of the restucturing office at TFI PZU.

PZU Inwestycje may also participate in the consolidation of the domestic investment funds sector, it said in May.

PZU this year also submitted an offer for Raiffeisen Polbank, the Polish unit of Austrian bank Raiffeisen Bank International and plans to buy three banks this year, possibly including Bank BPH, reports suggest.

The Polish Treasury owns a 35.19% stake in PZU.