Investment Plan backs medical diagnostics services in Germany
The European Investment Bank (EIB) will provide financing of EUR 30 million to medneo Group, a Berlin headquartered company providing innovative imaging diagnostics’ services and technology “as a service”. The financing will support medneo to enlarge its activities in the radiology sector, open additional radiology centres, increase process efficiency for its customers and so enable greater patient’s access to a high quality radiology service without the typical long waiting times and process inconveniences.
The transaction with medneo was made possible by the support of the “European Fund for Strategic Investments” (EFSI). EFSI is the central pillar of the “Investment Plan for Europe”, with which the EIB Group and the European Commission as strategic partners aim to boost the competitiveness of the European economy.
European Commission Vice-President Jyrki Katainen i, responsible for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness, said: “The Investment Plan is supporting an increasing number of projects in the medical sector. These projects - such as the one being signed today with medneo - are innovative and use cutting-edge technology to improve citizens' access to the best available healthcare. The importance of imaging diagnostics is growing in the health care sector, so I wish medneo every success in their project.”
Ambroise Fayolle, Vice-President of the EIB and responsible for Germany, commented: “The EU bank’s investments, especially in innovative SMEs, are key to helping strengthen Europe’s competitiveness and fostering sustainable growth. Our transaction with medneo demonstrates such support. medneo is an innovative radiology service provider targeting areas of significant unmet need. Our loan, in particular through its long tenor and its favorable financing conditions, is a high added-value transaction, as it will enable medneo to significantly enlarge its activities, speed up its investment plans and foster its market penetration thus also create new employment.
Nicolas Weber, Co-Founder and Managing Director of medneo, commented: “We are very pleased about the fact that the EIB has recognised medneo’s potential for increasing efficiency in the radiology service sector. The high demand for our services and our recent openings of 6 new radiology centers in 2017 in combination with access to additional funding through the EIB forms a very promising basis for our company’s future.”
Pii Ketvel, CEO of MARCOL Capital Europe, which jointly owns medneo with the three medneo founders, said: “As a pan-European investor in innovative growth companies, we are delighted by the support provided by the EIB and EU for the companies in this important sector. We were most impressed by the professionalism and dedication of the EIB teams working with us to put together the medneo facility. Given the strong relationship built with EIB we very much look forward to working with the EIB EFSI teams on a number future deals for our growth companies - and strongly encourage other growth companies to do same!”
Background information
About the EIB
The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the long-term lending institution of the European Union owned by its Member States. It makes long-term finance available for sound investment in order to contribute towards EU policy goals.
About medneo
medneo is a German innovative company in the diagnostic imaging market. It offers ‘’radiology as a service’’ that consists in delivering medical images to customers (e.g. clinicians and hospitals) instead of selling equipment. The added value of medneo is to offer improved process, higher rate of utilisation of the equipment, better quality images and quality service at reduced cost and so also to offer to the patients better access to radiology services without the typical long waiting times.
About MARCOL
MARCOL is a pan-European privately owned multibillion investment business focused on growing businesses. MARCOL has over 40-year track record as an equity investor taking active role in supporting innovative management teams and businesses to grow and succeed internationally.
About the Investment Plan for Europe
The Investment Plan for Europe, the Juncker Plan, is one of the EU´s top priorities to boost investments and to create jobs and growth by making smarter use of existing and new financial resources. The EIB Group is playing a vital role in this investment drive. Through guarantees from the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), the EIB and the EIF are able to take on a higher share of project risk, encouraging private finance providers to participate in the projects. In addition, EFSI is accompanied by a new advisory service, the European Investment Advisory Hub, which enables public and private project operators to structure their investment projects more professionally. The investment offensive also aims to make the regulatory environment in the EU more conducive to investment, especially in the digital, energy and capital market sectors. On 13 September, the European Parliament and Member States came to an agreement in principle on the extension and strengthening of the EFSI. This agreement extends the EFSI's duration as well as increases its financial capacity.