Corporate health-care provider Medisys Health Group Income Fund says it now has a "national footprint" for growth with its acquisition of Ottawa-based Sontex Health Services.

The acquisition brings Medisys into the Ottawa market and extends its reach to Canada's five major business centres, covering about 90 per cent of the country's executives, Medisys chief financial officer Stuart Elman said yesterday.

"In being able to service national clients, Ottawa certainly rounds that out very, very nicely," Elman said of the Sontex acquisition. "That gives us sort of a great national footprint from which to grow."

Montreal-based Medisys has offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal, and bills itself as a leading national provider of health-care services to corporations and insurance companies.

Previously, Medysis had to refer Ottawa-area clients to affiliated clinics that it didn't own, Elman said, adding the elimination of that process should bring in another $300,000 in annual revenues.

In a recent report, Sontex posted annual revenue of about $600,000. Medisys bought Sontex for an undisclosed sum and will absorb its employees, numbering fewer than 10, Elman said.

"It's a big market, $1.6 billion in Canada, in providing publicly funded medical imaging services but in clinics that are owned and operated privately," Elman added. "There are about 1,200 of these clinics across Canada and we own 14. So that's what we do in Ontario."

Medisys recently reported a second-quarter loss of $388,000, reversing a year-ago profit of $1 million, as higher expenses offset improved revenues.

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