The National Supplementary Health Agency (ANS), which regulates health plans in the country, determined this Monday (4) that the operator Amil resumes and remains responsible for the portfolio of individual plans transferred to the operator Personalized Health Assistance. (APS) between the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022. The decision is part of a precautionary measure taken by the collegiate board of the regulatory agency. 
The measure covers more than 300 thousand beneficiaries of individual and family plans of the operator Amil residing in the states of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Paraná, who started to be served by the operator APS. Beneficiaries of individual and family plans residing in other states were not transferred, remaining at Amil.
ANS also determined that any action by Amil and APS based on the Share Purchase Agreement (“Share Purchase Agreement”) with the purpose of selling the shares representing the share capital of APS be suspended. It also determined the suspension of any action by Amil and APS based on all contracts linked to the purchase and sale of shares. According to the agency, the administrative precautionary measure was adopted after analyzing the documentation requested by the ANS to the operators Amil and APS.
In the authorization request for the transfer of the portfolio from Amil to APS, Amil declared to ANS that the transfer of the portfolio would be a simple corporate reorganization between operators of the same economic group. Amil also informed that it would guarantee any need for financial support necessary to maintain the economic-financial balance of APS “as long as Amil and APS are part of the same economic group”.
However, ANS verified, after examining the requested documentation, that Amil had already defined the sale of APS shares, which would make both operators no longer part of the same economic group. This, according to ANS, would empty the guarantee offered by Amil in favor of APS.
The ANS also found that the purchasers of APS shares do not have sufficient financial capacity to guarantee the economic-financial balance of the APS. Furthermore, Amil already knew to which buyers the shares representing APS’s capital would be sold and omitted these facts from the regulatory agency.
Amil and APS may submit a statement to the ANS within 10 days. After that, the regulatory agency will definitively decide whether to cancel the authorization granted for the transfer of the portfolio and whether to adopt further measures.
Sought, Amil reported that it has not yet received the official statement from the ANS on the precautionary measure and that, therefore, it will not comment, for the time being. On its website, the operator maintains a statement addressed to customers of individual plans transferred to APS, in which it informs that access to the plan’s accredited network and other services continue to be provided through Amil’s platform.
Candidates for purchasers of shares in APS, Seferin & Coelho, Fiord Capital and Henning von Koss, disclose their position in relation to the ANS note. According to them, the negotiation of the transaction for the purchase of APS shares “provides, as a fundamental pillar, a contribution of more than R$ 2.3 billion in the form of cash available at APS, immediately” and, to this value would be added “ possible financial income from this capital and the monthly fees paid by the beneficiaries”, which would total another R$ 3 billion per year.
The candidates clarified that, as they consider the company’s financial structure to be solid for companies in this sector and that, from an actuarial point of view, the value exceeds the need to guarantee stability and they await official clarifications from the ANS on this topic.
Article updated at 9:59 pm to increase the positioning of candidates for purchasers of APS shares
