CHA Medical Group, a major South Korean medical and healthcare service provider that is also renowned for its stem cell research, has acquired the largest stake in a leading infertility treatment center operator in Australia as part of its aggressive push to expand its presence in the global medical and healthcare market.

CHA Medical Group said on Wednesday that CHA Healthcare Operation Co., a unit responsible for investment and operations of overseas hospitals, signed a stock purchase agreement with City Fertility Centre, a leading infertility treatment center in Australia.

To pursue the latest deal, CHA Healthcare Operation set up a joint venture with Singapore Medical Group, a private healthcare provider and hospital operator in the city state, to acquire a 65 percent stake worth 47 million Australian dollars ($37.9 million) in City Fertility Centre. CHA Healthcare Operation owns a 80 percent stake in the joint venture, becoming the largest shareholder of City Fertility Centre.

Following the acquisition, CHA Medical Group has become the operator of seven hospitals across major cities in Australia including Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. It has also become the first Korean medical institution to make inroads into the largest country in Oceania.

Under the stock purchase agreement, CHA Medical Group will directly manage and operate City Fertility Centre’s seven fertility clinics. The Korean medical group will also gain business rights of the center’s biobank for frozen egg storage and gene test.

The latest deal is part of CHA Medical Group’s aggressive push to go global. It plans to strengthen its medical network in Southeast Asia including Taiwan, Vietnam and Indonesia and expand its existing operations of infertility clinics in the U.S. and Spain.

To support the operation of the newly acquired clinics in Australia, CHA Medical Group will dispatch a team of its medical experts and researchers from Korea to the clinics. The group also plans to allow its Korean employees as well as medical students from CHA University to work and study at its own network in the United States, Australia, and Singapore.

By Shin Chan-ok and Lee Eun-joo

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