PureHealth buys Greece's largest private hospital chain for $2.3 billion

PureHealth has agreed to buy a majority stake in Hellenic Healthcare Group (HHG) for $2.3 billion, the largest outbound healthcare acquisition from the Gulf into Europe.

The deal hands PureHealth control of Greece's biggest private hospital operator. HHG runs 16 hospitals and clinics across Greece under the Hygeia, Metropolitan, and Mitera brands. The seller, CVC Capital Partners, bought HHG in 2018.

A string of billion-dollar hospital deals

PureHealth, majority-owned by Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund ADQ, has assembled an international hospital portfolio in under two years:

• 2023 — acquired Circle Health Group in the UK for roughly $1.2 billion, adding about 50 private hospitals across England, Wales, and Scotland
• 2024 — absorbed multiple Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (SEHA) facilities and closed an AED 2.2 billion deal for Aster DM Healthcare's GCC operations
• 2025 — agreed to acquire HHG in Greece for $2.3 billion

Listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange since late 2023, PureHealth now operates more than 100 healthcare facilities across the UAE, UK, and Greece. Its 2023 revenue topped AED 20 billion, the highest of any Middle Eastern healthcare company.

Why Greece, and why now

Greece's private hospital sector expanded after the country's debt crisis drained public-system funding. HHG holds an estimated 30% share of the Greek private hospital market, with annual revenue above €600 million. For PureHealth, the deal provides a southern European base where labour costs sit below UK levels and medical tourism from the Balkans and the Middle East is rising.

HHG's Athens hospitals have invested heavily in oncology and cardiac surgery. That clinical capability matters domestically: the Department of Health Abu Dhabi (DOH) wants providers to cut outbound medical tourism by building specialist capacity inside the emirate. DOH's Healthcare Capacity Master Plan 2030 targets self-sufficiency in complex care. PureHealth's foreign acquisitions generate returns abroad while routing clinical protocols and specialist staff back to Abu Dhabi and Al Ain hospitals.

What UAE operators should watch

The deal raises two questions for healthcare executives in the UAE. First, whether ADQ-backed consolidation will push further into the private mid-market, squeezing independent operators in Abu Dhabi and the Northern Emirates. PureHealth's domestic footprint already spans primary care clinics, pharmacies, diagnostics labs, and tertiary hospitals.

Second, whether Gulf healthcare capital will keep flowing into undervalued European assets. Saudi Arabia's Dr. Sulaiman Al Habib Medical Group and Kuwait's Al Salam International Hospital have both explored European acquisitions in the past 18 months.

The transaction needs regulatory approval in Greece and the EU. PureHealth expects closing in the first half of 2025. CEO Farhan Malik has said further international deals are under review, with Southeast Asia and North Africa on the shortlist.