GFH Financial Group Expands Its Regional Healthcare Platform Healian

Bahrain-based GFH Financial Group (GFH) has announced that the expansion of Healian, its flagship regional healthcare platform, continued with the strategic acquisition of a 60% equity stake in one of the largest and most advanced hospitals in Saudi Arabia, with an enterprise value of $1.3 billion.

Healian is premised on a buy-and-build strategy investing in leading healthcare providers in underserved, emerging economic hubs, and gateway cities. Through its network of 33 hospitals and specialised clinics in Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, Healian provides quality and affordable healthcare for everyone.

The hospital is a market leader in the Southern Region of Asir (Abha) in Saudi Arabia and operates a purpose- built, state-of-the-art 300 bed healthcare facility. It is considered one of the largest and most advanced private referral healthcare centres for the region and acts as a hub for its surrounding areas, which in turn will be covered through a planned chain of primary clinics in all the Southern regions.

It may be recalled that H R H Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Crown Prince, Prime Minister, Chairman of the Council for Economic and Development Affairs, and Chairman of the Public Investment Fund (PIF), early this month unveiled plans for a state-of-the-art airport in the Asir region in line with the region’s development strategy, which further highlights Asir’s position as a key emerging region of focus.

In Tune with Saudi Vision 2030

Hisham Alrayes, CEO of GFH, said that the ongoing growth of their regional healthcare platform with the acquisition of this strategic asset, which benefits from the strong fundamentals that they were seeing in Saudi Arabia, and is in alignment with the Kingdom’s Saudi Vision 2030, its priority sectors, and geographies.

“We continue to look for and secure assets in high-growth, defensive sectors such as healthcare and life sciences, where we can benefit from long-term structural growth tailwinds while leveraging the Group’s top-tier global track record and expertise to create value,” Alrayes added.

Abdulla Thumairi, CEO of Healian, said that the Saudi healthcare sector was undergoing significant transformation, and their healthcare platform was well positioned to contribute to the ongoing developments.

“We are a market leader in our target high-growth segments and are strategically positioned to fulfil the outsized demand, driven by high prevalence of non- communicable diseases, mandatory insurance, overburdened public health systems and digitisation, especially in new economic and tourism hubs,” Thumairi noted.

Healian has a robust and actionable pipeline of opportunities at various stages of the acquisition process that will further expand the platform, particularly in Saudi Arabia. GFH is planning to cumulatively invest as much as $1 billion in Healian over the next several years.

Healian is led by a seasoned, unified management team comprised of healthcare and life sciences experts, operators, and advisors.

The team brings deep domain expertise and is highly effective in repositioning and integrating platform assets into best-in-class by overlaying their time-tested value creation approach with the goal of delivering quality care at patients’ doorsteps for the improvement of health outcomes. The team anticipates a potential listing of the platform on the more liquid Saudi and regional exchanges in the forthcoming years.