Vantage Capital has made a $28m equity investment to acquire a significant minority shareholding in the Cliniques Internationales du Maroc Group (CIM Santé Group), one of Morocco’s leading healthcare groups.

CIM Santé Group is Vantage’s second investment in Morocco after its investment in Equity Invest, an IT group last year, and its third in Francophone Africa.

Luc Albinski, Managing Partner at Vantage Capital, said: “Vantage is proud to have concluded its largest growth-capital investment to date. It is always pleasing when our funds are applied towards building new, leading-edge infrastructure in Africa whether it takes the form of power plants, fibre networks or hospitals.”

“But given the impact that world-class health care can have on patients and on their families, in many cases saving lives that would prematurely succumb to heart disease and other medical conditions, this investment, at this time, with the COVID epidemic raging, is a source of great joy and pride for the Vantage team.”

The business was founded in 1994 by Professor Assad Chaara, an internationally renowned cardiologist who pioneered coronary angiography and catheterisation in Morocco.

CIM Santé Group is made up of the following entities: the Heart and Vascular Diseases Clinic; the International Clinic of Marrakech; and the International Clinic of Tangier, currently under development and expected to be fully operational in Q4 2020.

CIM Santé Group also owns or is in partnership with radiology centres, medical laboratories and laundry service companies in Marrakech and Tangier.

Vantage’s funding will enable the founding family to part-finance the extension of the existing clinic in Marrakech and the opening of new clinics in Tangier and Casablanca.

Thereafter, CIM Santé Group plans to further strengthen its position in the Moroccan market by adding more clinics to its portfolio as well as entering new markets in the rest of Africa.

Fahd Chaara, CEO of CIM Santé Group, said: “We feel that, with Vantage’s financial support and strategic guidance, we are up for the challenge of building on the wonderful legacy created by my father and  developing Morocco’s finest private sector health group, housing a broad range of medical disciplines and covering all of the Kingdom’s major cities. With Vantage we will also investigate the opportunity of expanding the business into West Africa in the next few years.”

Driss Benabdeslam, Associate Partner at Vantage Capital, added: “We are proud to partner with the highly-regarded Chaara family and contribute with our funds and our ideas to the further growth of the Group. We are confident that in a few years’ time, CIM Santé Group will be one of the biggest private multi-disciplinary healthcare groups in Morocco.”

Clifford Chance (in Morocco) acted as legal counsel to Vantage; Asafo (in Morocco) acted as legal counsel to CIM Holding; Deloitte (in Morocco) and Webber Wentzel (in South Africa) provided tax advice, Deloitte (in Morocco) was the financial advisor, Strategy& (part of the PwC network in Morocco) provided commercial advice, and Ibis Consulting (in South Africa) reviewed the environmental impact.

This transaction represents Vantage Capital’s 30^th transaction across three generations of mezzanine funds with its portfolio of investments spread across ten countries in Africa.