Read the Conversation
Conversation highlights:
- From Investors to Operators. Polar Salud has shifted from transaction-driven acquisitions to running hospitals efficiently, generating meaningful organic growth across its network.
- Integration and Profitability as Core Focus. The current priority is integrating hospitals, improving operations, and ensuring sustainable margins while keeping care affordable.
- Patient-Centered Growth. Expansion is driven by geographic gaps and underserved communities, emphasizing quality, accessible care over random or rapid scaling.
- Operational Excellence Beyond Insurance. The group pursues strategic positioning for out-of-pocket patients, rather than relying on traditional insurance models, optimizing value for patients.
- Mission-Driven Impact. Growth is measured not only in beds or revenue but in safe, high-quality care for patients who would otherwise have limited or expensive access, reflecting a commitment to societal impact.
EF: After a year of exponential growth, what does your current footprint look like?
AC: Inorganic growth can look highly attractive from the outside because every metric improves. But at the end of the day, you are acquiring hospitals. An organization can be excellent at sourcing transactions, valuing companies, and delivering strong investor returns, yet still lack the capabilities required to operate effectively. We started as investors; today, we are operators. We have acquired solid hospitals, understand how this industry works, and which levers drive performance.
That knowledge has allowed us to generate organic growth in every hospital we have acquired. We don’t just build an acquisition pipeline in a fragmented market, but create meaningful organic value within our companies.
Even though we already have ten hospitals and have the fastest inorganic growth of any hospital group in Mexico, fragmentation persists. Our strategy is to operate in hubs, rather than having hospitals scattered across the country. We aim to build strong positions in selected cities where essential healthcare services are still lacking.
We operate three hospitals in the Arco Norte, Estado de Mexico, metropolitan area of Mexico City, each serving communities with distinct needs and purchasing power, highlighting both the magnitude and granularity of Mexico’s healthcare demand. Expanding our presence through acquisitions in these areas is challenging. Facilities and sellers are often informal, and regulatory processes, while nominally time-bound, can be slow, unpredictable, and at times unresponsive.
When we evaluate a hospital, we ask: What can we control? What is beyond our control? What risks are we assuming? We make decisions based on “ Mexico’s need to have this infrastructure”. Our main driver is providing accessible healthcare in Mexico. From that perspective, the answer is yes. It is a mission-driven decision, not only a risk calculation.
EF: Last year, you indicated that you had approximately 150 beds in 2025 and that your objective was to build up towards 300 beds. Where do you stand today?
AC: We reached our target. Depending on whether we apply the Mexican standard of sensible beds versus total beds, we have more than 300 beds. Interestingly, we also have more operating rooms than we initially planned for that number of beds.
While bed count is a widely used benchmark in our sector, what truly matters is the geographic distribution of those beds. For example, 100 beds in Arco Norte have a greater impact on Mexico’s healthcare system than 1,000 beds in Mexico City. Overall, we are on track with our original plans and have a solid pipeline.
Looking ahead, this year will focus more on integrating our existing hospitals and stabilizing our assets, rather than maintaining the previous pace of opening roughly one hospital every three months. We want to make sure our growth is sustainable, and even though we could grow faster, that will depend on the location and characteristics of the assets in our pipeline.
EF: 2025 has been a year of exponential or inorganic growth. If you had to put a tag on 2026, what would it be the year of for Polar Salud: consolidation, integration, or streamlining?
AC: We are an integration platform, so that is always our core mission. As management, we have three main responsibilities. First, we must secure equity and debt and build a strong pipeline. Second, we must manage and operate the hospitals’ day-to-day activities. Third, we must integrate.
This year, our focus is on integration and profitability. Creating shareholder value and generating cash are essential. We’ve improved operational efficiency across our hospitals, boosting EBITDA while keeping prices accessible. Profitability is the foundation for a sustainable pricing model. Without healthy margins derived from operations, progress is impossible. Profitability through optimal operation is the only way to translate sustainable affordability into healthcare services.
In Mexico, most hospital groups rely heavily on insurance, which drives price increases. We operate insurance agnostically; roughly 30% of our patients use insurance, but we do not depend on it. Insurers push to contain costs while demanding high-value coverage, creating structural inefficiencies. Our approach is different. We focus on generating new out-of-pocket topline revenue while simultaneously building strong B2B agreements, supported by targeted B2C digital marketing strategies. At the same time, we expand our affiliated physician network by offering sustainable economic benefits while maintaining accessibility. Accessibility, combined with high medical quality and safety, is particularly valuable for insurers. Because our cost structure is efficient, insurers consistently spend less per case in our hospitals compared to many other facilities in their networks. This creates a structurally better relationship with insurance companies. Most of the insured patients we serve come from corporate collective coverage plans. These policies are more cost-constrained than ever, which is precisely where our model becomes attractive. When patients choose our accessible hospitals, insurers reduce claim costs without compromising quality. This strategy allows us to expand patient volume, optimize operating costs, strengthen physician alignment, improve insurer economics, and align incentives across the company, insurers, and hospitals. The result is a scalable model built on accessibility, efficiency, and medical safety and quality, independent of price hikes or unsustainable insurance structures.
EF: How do you manage growth?
AC: We are growing rapidly, but this growth is not random. It reflects persistent gaps in the public healthcare system. Long waits, inefficient treatment, and inconsistent quality leave many patients underserved, creating both opportunity and responsibility for private providers like us.
Managing growth means focusing on efficient, high-quality, and accessible care. We must compete not only with the public sector but also with private clinics that operate outside regulatory oversight, often charging similar prices. This requires creativity in commercial strategy and a clear demonstration of the value we provide.
Top-line growth comes primarily from supporting physicians’ private practices with walk-ins, while brand awareness and geographic expansion offer additional avenues. Success lies in combining operational excellence with strategic market positioning, ensuring growth is sustainable and patient-centered.
EF: In four years, it will be 2030. Where do you see Polar Salud then? Where do you want to take it?
AC: Over the next few years, our strategy has two parts: continue improving integration and build value for possible future acquisitions. I would rather keep and grow the company for the long term, but we may need to sell if that is what allows the mission to continue. In that case, it would be the best way to achieve what we set out to do.
If we can show that the Polar Salud model is repeatable—buying targets with clear characteristics and consistently reaching our metrics—our value proposition will remain strong in the coming years. We aim to reach around 1,000 beds.
We have raised more than 1,000 million pesos in debt from HSBC and Sabadell to acquire additional hospitals and have made a major real estate purchase in Pachuca. This includes a hospital, a university, commercial space, and a hotel. This diversification gives us rental income and improves our ability to secure more financing.
EF: What are your observations as a healthcare operator in the Mexican life sciences ecosystem?
AC: The main challenges are the difficult relationship between insurers and hospitals and the inequality and underfunding of the public system. Rising insurance costs and fewer policies are also hurting the market. Both sides need to make money, which creates tension, and without real change, the industry will face structural problems.
Inequality in access and quality in the public sector is another key issue. It pushes patients toward us and helps our project grow, but it is still a serious problem for society. Beyond these structural issues, success depends on good execution, raising capital, and hard work. This is an impact-driven project: if we succeed, we will provide safe, high-quality care to people who would otherwise pay much more or have no access at all.
We are proud of our patient experience. Our NPS averages above 86, and some hospitals are above 90. But this is not something to celebrate, as it is the basic standard we owe our patients. Polar Salud operates as any other top-tier hospital or facility. This commitment is at the core of our mission.
