Affidea successfully reprices its debt and raises an additional ?200 million credit facility to support the company's continued growth plans

THE HAGUE, Netherlands, Feb. 27, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Affidea, Europe's largest community-based outpatient services provider with a core in diagnostic imaging that has grown to offer a broad service portfolio with symbiotic adjacent services including outpatient services, lab services and cancer care, announces the successful repricing of its debt structure and completion of ?200m Fungible Term Loan B. It adds to its existing ?770m Term Loan B. This recent credit facility further supports the company's strategy for growth.

Affidea has accelerated its growth strategy throughout 2023, investing in existing clinic expansion and Greenfields, alongside accretive acquisitions to expand its service portfolio, adding new polyclinics and Centres of Excellence. In total, in 2023, Affidea completed 14 acquisitions across 8 countries (including Switzerland, UK, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Romania), adding 24 new centres to its network and opened 9 new greenfield investments (Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Greece).

Affidea is constantly considering a number of bolt-on acquisitions to enhance its local scale and service diversification in order to better address the needs of its patients and doctors in every community. The new credit facility comes to support the company in pursuing its expansion plans for the next years.

Guy Blomfield, Affidea CEO and Chairman of the Management Board, stated: "I am very proud of what Affidea achieved in 2023 and how we started 2024. In the first two months of the year, we expanded in 5 of our countries with 3 acquisitions in Italy, Spain and Romania and 2 greenfields in Portugal and Switzerland. The success of this capital injection represents a vote of confidence in our strategy, in our operational and financial performance and strong business model. This new credit line provides us with the flexibility to capitalise on our strategic initiatives and to accelerate our expansion plans, offering value to our more than 13 million patients that visit every year our 355 centres across Europe". 

Ronald Voordendag, Affidea Interim CFO, added: "We are pleased with the support from debt investors in our refinanced term loan with reduced interest costs that support our growth plans. This is an achievement that reflects confidence in the company's resilience and our initiatives to strengthen cash flow and reduce leverage over the next few years. Leverage reduction will be driven by our like-for-like and broader growth perspectives and the company's ability to deliver on significant cost efficiencies".

The new credit facility was jointly arranged by BNP Paribas, Goldman Sachs and KKR as physical book-runners, with Citi and Unicredit acting as passive book-runners and RBI as mandated lead arrangers. Unicredit is acting agent.

About Affidea Group

Affidea (www.affidea.com) is the largest European provider of advanced diagnostic imaging, out-of-hospital and cancer care services. Founded in 1991, the company operates 355 centres across 15 countries, providing high-quality medical services to nearly 13 million patients every year. Due to its track record for patient safety, the company has become the most awarded diagnostic imaging provider in Europe by the European Society of Radiology, as over 80% of the centres recognised on the Eurosafe Wall of Stars belong to Affidea. Affidea is majority-owned by Groupe Bruxelles Lambert (GBL), a leading investment holding company, focused on long-term value-creation with a stable and supportive family shareholder base.

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