The insurance group SulAmérica, which has health plans as its main business, announced this Thursday (30) the purchase of rival Sompo Saúde, for R$ 230 million.
The company belonged to Sompo Seguros, controlled by the Japanese group Sompo Holdings and, in Brazil, it served around 116 thousand beneficiaries, with a greater presence in the state of São Paulo, especially in the metropolitan region.
Sompo Holdings is one of Japan’s largest insurance groups, founded around 130 years ago. SulAmérica was created in 1895, in Rio.
“The transaction thus involves two centuries-old brands recognized for the high quality of their products and will allow SulAmérica, as one of the leaders in the supplementary health market in Brazil, to add Sompo Saúde in Brazil’s beneficiaries, customers, brokers and providers its entire strategy of comprehensive health and coordinated care that has been successfully developed in recent years, increasing quality, assistance and reception”, says SulAmérica, in a relevant fact.
The deal still needs to be approved by Cade (Administrative Council for Economic Defense). When completed, it should add approximately R$ 650 million in annual revenue to SulAmérica, according to the company.
SulAmérica totaled BRL 5.245 billion in operating revenues in the third quarter of this year, an increase of 3.7% in the annual comparison, with a net profit of BRL 280.3 million, a decrease of 83.8% compared to the third quarter of 2020 .
Powdered, market remains active in mergers and acquisitions
The group is the fifth largest health plan in the country, with a 3.9% share, after the leader Bradesco Saúde (7.2%), NotreDame Intermédica (6.8%), Amil (6.1%) and Hapvida (5.7%), according to data from Lafis Consultoria.
The health plan market is still very fragmented in Brazil. According to Lafis, in 2020, the sector had revenues of R$ 227.5 billion, an increase of 5% in the annual comparison.
Most of the health plans in the country are corporate groups (68%), that is, they are offered as a benefit to those who are employed. Another 13% are collective membership plans, contracted through unions and associations. Only 19% are individual or family – most plans are not interested in this category because the readjustment is dictated by the ANS (National Agency for Supplementary Health).
Hence the fact that Amil paid around R$ 3 billion to financial restructuring company Fiord Capital, in order to get rid of its deficit portfolio of individual health plans.
The operation announced on Thursday signals a growing strategy among health plans, as pointed out by a report by leaf in October. Faced with an aging population, companies increase their costs and decide to go into mergers and acquisitions, in order to promote more synergies and remain competitive. One of the main operations in the sector was the purchase of Hapvida by NotreDame Intermédica, approved this month by Cade.
At the same time, companies in the sector are moving towards verticalization of operations: institutions become owners of all fronts of medical care, such as clinics, laboratories and hospitals.
It was the strategy used by Prevent Senior to gain market share. Specialized in serving the elderly public, the operator this year was one of the scandals pointed out by the CPI (Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry) of Covid.
The company was the target of reports of administration of the “covid kit” (medicines without proven efficacy to control the disease) in patients, without the consent of their families, in addition to fraud in the death records.
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