Antwerp Hospital Network: future for care
Through a cooperation agreement between the Flemish Social Protection Agency (AVSB), the Flemish Infrastructure Fund for Personal Affairs (VIPA) and PMV, funds from the AVSB will be made available to finance investments in the healthcare sector. PMV thus worked out a loan of 15 million euros in 2020 with which Hospital Network AntwerpThe loan to ZNA, our country’s largest healthcare organisation, is an important step in its strategic healthcare plan involving the modernisation and integration of the hospital network’s activities. ZNA is replacing two old hospitals with the Cadix hospital (under construction). In the group’s largest hospital (ZNA Middelheim), the intensive care, kidney dialysis and child psychiatry departments will be renovated. The new building and renovation works should enable doctors and nurses to provide more personalised care in a better working environment and further improve existing care. The modernisation of the existing department and the construction of the new hospital are part of ZNA’s strategic care plan, which aims to modernise and integrate healthcare activities. will modernise.
The loan to ZNA, our country’s largest healthcare organisation, is an important step in its strategic healthcare plan involving the modernisation and integration of the hospital network’s activities. ZNA is replacing two old hospitals with the Cadix hospital (under construction). In the group’s largest hospital (ZNA Middelheim), the intensive care, kidney dialysis and child psychiatry departments will be renovated. The new building and renovation works should enable doctors and nurses to provide more personalised care in a better working environment and further improve existing care. The modernisation of the existing department and the construction of the new hospital are part of ZNA’s strategic care plan, which aims to modernise and integrate healthcare activities.
Flexible repayment
PMV worked out a €15m 30-year loan on behalf of the AVSB in a major funding round in which the European Investment Bank (EIB) took the lead. Two banks also decided to join together in a similar effort. PMV provided the capstone financing by working out a loan that offers more flexibility in terms of repayment and maturity than traditional bank financing. Filip Lacquet, group manager for corporate finance at PMV, explains: “Through the ASVB, the Flemish government wants to co-finance the healthcare of the future. To this end, we developed flexible loan formulas that can consist of both long-term ‘senior loans’ and subordinated loans where the borrower is at the back of the queue when repayment fails. The flexible formula can be used to finance investments in all kinds of healthcare institutions (hospitals, senior centres, institutions for the differently-abled…) and relieves the pressure on the balance sheet of those institutions, so they do not have to shy away from launching new projects necessary for the future of our healthcare.”
Proud
Earlier, ZNA also received a EUR 200 million loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB). Both the European and Flemish governments are thus making healthcare financing a spearhead of their investment policy. PMV is certainly proud that it can make its expertise available for investments in healthcare in our region. “The financial pressure on healthcare institutions is enormous. By relieving this pressure with our financing, we show that we stand squarely behind the healthcare workers and their institutions that are severely tested by the corona virus,” says general manager Michel Casselman.
