PENTA investment group is increasing its share in Dôvera, the largest private health insurance company on the Slovak market, to become the only shareholder in the company. Penta has agreed with the company Prefto Holding Limited to take over its 50-percent stake, the SITA newswire reported.
The transaction still needs to be approved by the Health-Care Supervision Authority as well as the Anti-monopoly Office.
The main reason for the transaction is reported to be disagreements between the two shareholders about further operation of Dôvera after the Slovak government announced that it wants to establish a single state health insurance system in Slovakia.
“We disagree with the current initiative of the government and do not want to sell our shareholding in the company to the state,” Eduard Maták, a partner in Penta, said, as quoted by SITA. “We believe that the existence of choice and competition between public and private health insurance companies brings greater efficiency and quality in health care and services.”
Penta views the introduction of a system with a single health insurance company as a step back, which would hinder both patients and physicians. It will therefore spare no effort to defend the current plural system of health insurance, SITA wrote.
