HEALTHCARE INVESTMENT
Spanish partners back 70-bed specialty hospital,
first of its kind assisted reproduction, genetics unit
Oman & Emirates Investment Holding Company SAOG (O&E), a joint venture partnership set up by the governments of Oman and the United Arab Emirates, says its planned investments in a specialty hospitality, as well as a first-ever assisted reproduction clinic in the Sultanate, are still on the table notwithstanding delays attributable to the pandemic.
The publicly traded firm, which is listed on the Muscat Stock Exchange, currently has over RO 42 million in investments distributed across a large portfolio of asset classes, including tourism and hospitality, banking and insurance, industry, real estate, leasing, services, agriculture, telecom, education, power and stocks.
Adding to this portfolio is a proposed high-end, 70-bed hospital to be set up in partnership with a leading Spanish medical group. While O&E and the Spanish partners have pledged stakes of 20 per cent and 15 per cent respectively in the share capital of the project company, the balance 65 per cent of the share capital has been fully committed to institutional investors in the Sultanate, according to the Muscat-headquartered JV.
Commenting on the progress made thus far in the implementation of the hospital project, O&E said: “Having concluded the matter of land and constitutive documents ready for execution, the conversion of the project company from limited liability to a closed joint stock company was planned during the second quarter of 2020 had it not been for the pandemic and its impact on all parties involved. Depending on circumstances, soft activities will continue but no major investment has been budgeted during the year until resumption of normality in the business environment,” the company stated in its financial report for 2020.
Also on the anvil is a first of its kind Assisted Reproduction and Genetics Unit planned by the company jointly with two Spanish partners. Fitout work on the new facility, which is proposed to be set up on the ground floor of the company’s new head office building in Muscat, was paused last year due to the pandemic, said O&E in the Chairman’s Report.
The Spanish partners involved in the initiative are described as “leaders and specialists in this business, offering diagnosis and treatment of infertility services with cutting-edge technology”.
Operating a network of nine units and two satellite branches within Spain in addition to one international facility, they also run a Genetics Unit and offer all the techniques that are used in reproductive genetics. Besides, they are the only ones operating a DNA Bank of Donors in Europe, the company also noted in its Management Discussion and Analysis Report.
“Genetic counselling,” it further added, “is also offered for a better diagnosis, treatment and consensus decision-making.
“Their various techniques and complementary processes will be transferred to the unit in Muscat under a Management Agreement, apart from their alignment through their own business in the clinic,” O&E added.
O&E, set up by Royal Decree in 1993, recorded a net loss of RO 1.646 million during 2020 as against a net profit of RO 292K during 2019. The parent company posted a net loss of RO 1.335 million in 2020, as against a net profit of RO 562K in 2019.
The aggregate value of investments of the group declined to RO 43.771 million last year versus RO 46.842 million a year earlier.
CONRAD PRABHU
@conradprabhu
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