Mehiläinen (Finnish for "bee") is a concern for social and healthcare services for both public and private customers, active in Finland, Sweden, Germany and Estonia. The company's largest owner is CVC Capital Partners.Hoivajätti Mehiläinen saa pääomistajan Luxemburgista ja uusia suomalaisomistajia – aikoo haukata entistä suuremman osa sote-miljardeista, Uusimaa 18 May 2018. Accessed on 16 November 2021.Niskanen, Saara: Mehiläinen kasvaa Virossa hammashoidon palveluissa, jotka kiinnostavat myös suomalaisia – "Selkeästi suomalaisasiakkaita on", Talouselämä. Accessed on 11 November 2021.
History 1909-1999
The hospital limited company Mehiläinen was founded in Helsinki in 1909Pääomistajat myyvät osuutensa Mehiläisestä – enemmistöomistajaksi pääomasijoittaja, Ilta-Sanomat 18 May 2018. Accessed on 11 November 2021. as a small private hospital.Toppari, Kirsti: Helsingin korttelit kertovat osa 7 Sairaala ja vanha suojeluskuntatalo, Helsingin Sanomat 12 August 1994. Accessed on 13 November 2021. It was founded by four Finnish-speaking doctors, Reguel Löfqvist, Akseli Koskimies, Walter Sipilä and K. F. Hirvisalo.Mehiläinen yrityksenä, Mehiläinen. Accessed on 12 November 2021. The company was named after the mythical bee Mehiläinen in the national epic Kalevala, who healed Lemminkäinen as he was dying.Mehiläisen toimitusjohtajan tervehdys 110-vuotisjuhlapäivänä, Mehiläinen. Accessed on 13 November 2021. The company was first located on the Huvilankatu street.Sairaala Osakeyhtiö Mehiläinen — Historia, Pörssitieto. Accessed on 12 November 2021.
The company bought two lots from the city of Helsinki from the newly constructed area in Pohjois-Töölö, and the first part of the hospital was completed in autumn 1932 at Hesperiankatu 17. The company created rental apartments in its old premises. In 1933 the hospital was expanded to Runeberginkatu, and the third phase was completed in 1937, at which time the building right of the lots was exhausted. The hospital had 128 places for the sick and also space for newly-born babies. The last completed part also had space for apartments and businesses.
During the Winter War the hospital first served as a first aid station for the city of Helsinki, until it became a military hospital for the Finnish Red Cross, later known as the Töölö Hospital.Pesonen, Hannu: Mehiläinen: 100 vuotta suomalaisten elämässä. Otava 2009. . pp. 8-11. The hospital also served as a military hospital during the Continuation War. During the bombing of Helsinki in February 1944 the hospital was damaged and was forced to shut down almost all activities for a while.
Group services by special doctors were started in 1957.
In 1964 the city of Espoo rented 34 bed places from Mehiläinen.
In 1974 the company started offering work healthcare services. The company was renamed Sairaalaosakeyhtiö Mehiläinen in 1978.
The childbirth department of Mehiläinen was discontinued in June 1980. In 1984 the company bought the Hakaniemi medical station and its daughter company, the Kielotie medical station in Vantaa. The deal also included the Forum medical station, which only started activities in 1986.
Mehiläinen renovated its concern structure from 1994 to 1995. The Kalevankatu medical station was fused to the parent company and the Forum medical station into the Hakaniemi medical station. The Mehiläinen hospital had 90 places for the sick, a laboratory and a surgical operation room. The hospital served about 130 thousand patients per year.
2000-2010
CapMan and SITRA became Mehiläinen's major owners in 2000. In the next year, the Mehiläinen Hospital Limited Company and Tohtoritalo fused into Mehiläinen Oy. Tohtoritalo had been founded in 1996 as a merger between Meditori and the Vagus medical station. In 2002 the company acquired Remedi from Vaasa and Säveri from Kuopio. In the next year the company acquired a further nine companies.
In 2006 CapMan and SITRA sold the majority of Mehiläinen's shares to the Swedish investor company 3i and Mehiläinen became part of the Swedish Ambea concern.Mehiläinen kiisti "härskin verokikkailun" syksyllä 2011 – Oikeus pui nyt, oliko sittenkin verojen välttelyä, YLE 11 September 2017. Accessed on 12 November 2021. In 2007 Carema Hoivapalvelut Oy, the Finnish daughter company of Carema, the Swedish daughter company of the Ambea concern, was acquired by Mehiläinen. In 2009, the company started offering healthcare and home care services in Karis with the Carema name. Mehiläinen started offering services for child protection and mental health rehabilitation through the Leivoyhtiöt company.
In 2010 KKR and Swedish company Triton AB became the major owners of Mehiläinen.
2011-
In the 2010s, many Finnish municipalities privatised their social and healthcare services to Mehiläinen and other companies. In municipalities who had outsourced their social and healthcare services, there were many problems in reaching the promised level of services in organising both the municipality's own activity and control of outsourced services. According to the city of Kemi, half of the doctors agreed in the contract with Länsi-Pohja Oy were missing. According to Lasse Männistö, the CEO of Mehiläinen Länsi-Pohja Oy, the missing doctors were Kemi's own fault, as the premises were poor. According to Männistö, the company intends to amend the missing doctors by moving their work to nurses and by offering digital services.Sote-palvelunsa ulkoistaneissa kunnissa on ollut laajasti ongelmia, STT 10 May 2019. Accessed on 14 November 2021.Kemin terveydenhuollossa suuria ongelmia – ulkoistus Mehiläiselle puolitti lääkäripalvelut, kaupunki vaatii nyt korvauksia, Kaleva 3 February 2020. Accessed on 14 November 2021.
Mediverkko and Mehiläinen announced their merger in November 2014. Janne-Olli Järvenpää, the founder and CEO of Mediverkko, became the CEO of the new company.Mehiläinen ja Mediverkko yhdistyvät terveys- ja sosiaalipalvelualan suunnannäyttäjäksi, Mehiläinen 18 November 2014. Accessed on 18 November 2014. Mediverkko was acquired by Mehiläinen in January 2015. At the time, the concern had a total revenue of over 360 million euro and over nine thousand employees.Mehiläinen ja Mediverkko yhdistyvät, Ilta-Sanomat 18 November 2014. Accessed on 28 April 2019.
In summer 2017 LähiTapiola bought a ten-percent share of Mehiläinen. Mehiläinen had a revenue of over 165 million euro, almost 30 percent more than in the previous year.
In May 2018 the funds controlled by Triton and KKR sold Mehiläinen to LähiTapiola, Varma, Ilmarinen and CVC Capital Partners.Eronen, Eeva: Nyt ostettiin Mehiläinen – Ostajiin kuuluva LähiTapiola ei kommentoi tietoa 1,8 miljardin kauppahinnasta, Talouselämä 18 May 2018. Accessed on 19 May 2018. The company had over 14 thousand employees. From 2015 to 2018 Mehiläinen acquired over 40 companies.Sote-markkinoilla käy kova rytinä – yrityskauppa joka neljäs päivä, Uusi Suomi. Accessed on 9 February 2019. During one year Mehiläinen built over 700 new apartments for the elderly, the disabled and mental health rehabilitants. The Mehiläinen home service was active in over 150 municipalities.Honkamaa, Antti: TE-analyysi: Mehiläinen lentää miljardiin – moni poliitikko näkee punaista, mutta se ei estä terveysyhtiön kasvua, Talouselämä. Accessed on 11 November 2021.
In April 2019 the OP Financial Group announced it would sell the healthcare services of Pohjola Terveys to Mehiläinen, having offered workplace healthcare services to 800 customer companies with a total of almost 19 thousand employees.Eskola, Hanna: OP karsii edelleen - myy Pohjola Terveyden työterveyspalvelut Mehiläiselle, Kauppalehti. Accessed on 11 November 2021. In November Mehiläinen announced it would acquire Pihlajalinna.Sutinen, Teija: Terveysyritys Mehiläinen ostaa Pihlajalinnan, Helsingin Sanomat 5 November 2019. Accessed on 8 November 2019. At this time Mehiläinen's revenue reached one billion euro for the first time, at a total of 1064 million euro.Jurvelin, Kyösti: Hoivakohu koetteli Mehiläistä, mutta liikevaihto puhkaisi miljardin euron rajapyykin – "Jyvät erottuivat akanoista", Kauppalehti. Accessed on 11 November 2021.
In 2020 Mehiläinen made its first foreign acquisition,Hertsi, Anneli: Mehiläinen hakee ostokohteita Ruotsista ja muilta lähialueilta – "Kaatunut fuusio vapautti energiaa muihin kasvuhankkeisiin", Kauppalehti. Accessed on 11 November 2021. when its daughter company BeeHealthy bought the Stockholm-based company Sibyllekliniken. BeeHealthy was separated into a separate company for new start-up activities selling Mehiläinen's digital services abroad.Terveydenhuolto | Mehiläinen pyrkii kansainvälisille markkinoille digipalveluilla – Suomen lähialueille on tarkoitus perustaa myös omia lääkärikeskuksia, Helsingin Sanomat 24 November 2020. Accessed on 11 November 2021. In September the Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority made a proposal to the market court to forbid the merger between Mehiläinen and Pihlajalinna.Mehiläisen Pihlajalinnasta tekemä ostotarjous ei toteutunut aikataulussa – KKV esitti syyskuussa markkinaoikeudelle yrityskaupan kieltämistä. Maaseudun tulevaisuus 23 November 2020. In late November Mehiläinen and Pihlajalinna announced that the deal had been cancelled.Pohjoismaiden suurin terveysjätti jää syntymättä: Pihlajalinna ja Mehiläinen eivät neuvottele enää yhdistymisestä, YLE 25 November 2020. Accessed on 11 November 2021.
In 2021 Mehiläinen acquired the Estonian workplace healthcare company Qvalitas as well as three dental care stations, of which the firstly acquired company Unimed fused with the later acquisitions of KW and Al Mare. In November Mehiläinen acquired the German company Dalberg Klinik AG.Terveysalan yritys Mehiläinen laajenee Saksaan, Ilta-Sanomat 15 November 2021. Accessed on 15 November 2021.
Organisation
In 2018 Mehiläinen employed over 5400 doctors, of which about 3300 were in active practice. There were over 57 medical centres and a total of over 18,800 employees. The company had eleven hospitals all over Finland.Mehiläisen vuosikatsaus 2018, Mehiläinen. Accessed 3 April 2018.Mehiläinen yrityksenä, Mehiläinen. Accessed on 18 April 2019.
In 2020 healthcare services amounted to 773.2 million euro and social care services to 389.3 million euro of the total revenue. Of the revenue, 596.2 million euro came from the public sector, 306.3 million euro from corporate customers and the remaining 260.0 million euro from private customers.Tilinpäätös 2020, Mehiläinen 2021. Accessed on 29 November 2021. Mehiläinen employed about 70 software developers producing its digital services.Holtari, Seija: Mehiläinen hakee maailmalta jättipottia, tavoitteena 800 miljoonaa euroa – "Tämä tarkoittaa väistämättä myös yrityskauppoja", Talouselämä. Accessed 11 November 2021.
Mehiläinen works abroad through the BeeHealthy brand. In spring 2021 BeeHealthy had 50 employees.Jauhiainen, Ilkka: Terveysyhtiö Mehiläinen aikoo kasvaa ulkomailla digiterveyden avulla – "Ruotsissa ja Saksassa markkinoiden keskittyminen on vasta edessä", Kauppalehti (subscribers only). Accessed on 11 November 2021.
Ownership In autumn 2021 the five largest owners of Mehiläinen were the funds controlled by the Luxembourgian company CVC Capital Partners (56%), the LähiTapiola group (20%) as well as the Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company (20%), the State Retirement Fund of Finland and the insurance company Ilmarinen.Mehiläisen omistus ja johto, Mehiläinen. Accessed on 11 November 2021.
Products and services
The three most important business areas of Mehiläinen are private healthcare services, public healthcare services and social care services. The concern also offers mental health services.
The OmaMehiläinen service has over one million registered users. It can be used to reserve appointments, request renewal of prescriptions or view one's own healthcare records.
Digital clinic