Business

Techno Group gets Dogu stake

A subsidiary of Gulf Capital has acquired a 75 per cent stake in a Turkish medical company as it aims to tap into the country's burgeoning healthcare market.

Tom Arnold

April 11, 2013

A subsidiary of Abu Dhabi-based Gulf Capital has acquired a 75 per cent stake in a Turkish medical company as it aims to tap into the country's burgeoning healthcare market.

Techno Group Investment Holdings made the multimillion dollar investment in Dogu Tip, a major provider of outsourced diagnostic imaging services in Turkey.

"This is one of the first movements by a Gulf private equity portfolio company into Turkey," said Nabil Kassem, the managing director of operations at Gulf Capital and the Techno Group interim chief executive.

"With the acquisition of Dogu Tip we are adding a very strategic component to the Techno Group business model. It has the proven capability to grow and to operate across a large geography, where it operates centres spanning the vast breadth of Turkey, from Erzurum in the east to Istanbul in the west. With Techno Group's support, Dogu Tip will be able to provide outsourced diagnostic imaging services across the Middle East and North Africa and beyond."

Techno Group hopes to tap into the transformation of Turkey's healthcare sector as it modernises to meet the needs of a booming population as well as rising numbers of medical tourists from abroad.

Between 2004 and 2009, the 10.5 per cent growth in Turkey's healthcare sector outstripped average expansion of 9.5 per cent in overall GDP.

Already the largest chain of medical diagnostic and imaging centres in the Arab world, Egypt-based Techno Group operates 34 diagnostic imaging centres in Egypt, Jordan and the GCC.

The latest acquisition takes the number of Techno Group centres to 39.

"We will be investing $50 million [Dh183.6m] or $60m in the next few months," said Mr Kassem. "We will continue to look at opportunities in countries where we operate, which is Egypt, Turkey and Jordan. We are also looking at several opportunities in North Africa and the Gulf."

In Turkey, Techno Group also hopes to benefit from the growing popularity of public-private partnerships (PPP).

The government is seeking to outsource many of its medical services, a strategy heavily reliant on PPP. The value of PPP in the country is expected to reach $65 billion by next year as part of a focus to raise the quality and efficiency of the healthcare system and improve access to medical services.

Email sent to Uber team from chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi

From: Dara

To: Team@

Date: March 25, 2019 at 11:45pm PT

Subj: Accelerating in the Middle East

Five years ago, Uber launched in the Middle East. It was the start of an incredible journey, with millions of riders and drivers finding new ways to move and work in a dynamic region that’s become so important to Uber. Now Pakistan is one of our fastest-growing markets in the world, women are driving with Uber across Saudi Arabia, and we chose Cairo to launch our first Uber Bus product late last year.

Today we are taking the next step in this journey—well, it’s more like a leap, and a big one: in a few minutes, we’ll announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Careem. Importantly, we intend to operate Careem independently, under the leadership of co-founder and current CEO Mudassir Sheikha. I’ve gotten to know both co-founders, Mudassir and Magnus Olsson, and what they have built is truly extraordinary. They are first-class entrepreneurs who share our platform vision and, like us, have launched a wide range of products—from digital payments to food delivery—to serve consumers.

I expect many of you will ask how we arrived at this structure, meaning allowing Careem to maintain an independent brand and operate separately. After careful consideration, we decided that this framework has the advantage of letting us build new products and try new ideas across not one, but two, strong brands, with strong operators within each. Over time, by integrating parts of our networks, we can operate more efficiently, achieve even lower wait times, expand new products like high-capacity vehicles and payments, and quicken the already remarkable pace of innovation in the region.

This acquisition is subject to regulatory approval in various countries, which we don’t expect before Q1 2020. Until then, nothing changes. And since both companies will continue to largely operate separately after the acquisition, very little will change in either teams’ day-to-day operations post-close. Today’s news is a testament to the incredible business our team has worked so hard to build.

It’s a great day for the Middle East, for the region’s thriving tech sector, for Careem, and for Uber.

Uber on,

Dara