Norlandia Omsorg, the largest healthcare operator in Norway, has been put on the block, according to reliable sources. Omsorg's chief executive Nina Torp Høisæter did not return our calls, but Diana Balinova, finance director at sister company Norlandia Hotels, would neither confirm nor deny that Omsorg was for sale, merely asking Healthcare Europa whether it was interested in purchasing the operation.
Norlandia Omsorg would make a great fit for either Ambea or Attendo, the two big pan-Nordic healthcare and care home arms.
The company is 45% owned by FSN Capital and 45% by Hospitality Invest AS, the investment arm of big hotel chain Norlandia. In June 2007, Norlandia Omsorg nearly doubled in size with the acquition of Achima, a healthcare recruitment agency with sales of 200m NOK.
Norlandia Omsorg has big ambitions for the Norwegian care home market, which may open up if the conservative party wins the election in 2009.
It is also building a pan-Scandinavian chain of patient hotels.
Chief Executive Nina Torp Høisæter says there are now 45 such hotels in Scandinavia, and that Norlandia is the main operator: "Many are tiny, but we run a big unit in Oslo with 130 beds." All are owned by adjacent hospitals, who bring in Norlandia Omsorg as an operator, either with an entrepreneur or contractor licence, with Torp Høisæter very much preferring the latter.
The hotels provide accommodation for ambulatory patients. Torp Høisæter says it is impossible to say how fast they will spread: "The hospital sector is very conservative, and normally run by doctors, so getting change is difficult."
