The Czech competition authority has granted approval for AGEL a.s. to acquire Karvinská hornická nemocnice a.s. The authority determined that this merger will not lead to a substantial distortion of competition in the market.

AGEL is part of the Slovak business group SUPERNIUS and operates in the Czech Republic, providing both outpatient and inpatient healthcare services, rehabilitation, and wholesale and retail distribution of pharmaceuticals. The company currently owns around thirty hospitals and healthcare facilities in the country.

Karvinská hornická nemocnice is a joint-stock company that offers outpatient, acute inpatient, and follow-up care, as well as day surgery services. It also operates both a public and a hospital pharmacy.

The competition authority specifically examined the situation in the Moravian-Silesian Region, where AGEL provides inpatient healthcare in hospitals located in Ostrava-Vítkovice, Nový Jičín, Třinec, and Český Těšín. There are a total of 19 hospitals in the region offering similar services.

The authority concluded that the merger would not result in a significant increase in market share for the merging companies in the provision of inpatient healthcare in the Moravian-Silesian Region. There are sufficient healthcare facilities within reasonable distance from Karvinská hornická nemocnice that offer similar inpatient care services.

Additionally, the authority assessed the merger's impact on the wholesale and retail distribution of pharmaceuticals, finding no significant concerns regarding competition disruption in this area either.