The story
History
Early history
Bupa (originally the British United Provident Association) was established in 1947 when seventeen British provident associations joined to provide healthcare for the general public. The firm is a private company limited by guarantee; it has no shareholders, and any profits (after tax) are reinvested in the business.
The services offered by Bupa began as private medical insurance, offering policies to individuals, companies and other organisations, and eventually expanded to include privately run hospitals, outpatient clinics, health assessments, GP services, dental centres, digital health, aged care and other health services.
1970s
Bupa has expanded internationally from its UK operations. Malta was the site of Bupa's first overseas business in 1971 and it started insurance operations in Hong Kong in 1976.
1980s
In 1982, Bupa International was launched to provide worldwide medical cover to people working outside their home country. This business division is now branded as 'Bupa Global'.
In 1989, Bupa acquired 'Sanitas' S.A. de Seguros, Spain's second largest private medical insurer. This has expanded to become a combined health insurance, hospital, clinic, dental and aged care business operating under the Sanitas brand.
1990s
During the 1990s, Bupa continued to expand internationally. An insurance business was established in Thailand which was sold in 2017 to Aetna. Bupa Ireland, a health insurance business, was established in 1996 but sold in 2007.
Bupa also diversified in the UK into care homes with the acquisition of 200 homes through Community Nursing Homes, Goldsborough Healthcare Group and Care First Group.
In 1997, Bupa entered the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in partnership with the Nazer Group to form Bupa Arabia. In 2008, Bupa Arabia was listed on the Tadawul, the Saudi stock market. Bupa Arabia is now the leading health insurance provider in the KSA. Bupa owns 43.25% of this business.
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2000–2010
In the 2000s, Bupa entered the Australian health insurance market, opened hospitals in Spain and expanded its network of clinics and care homes in the UK.
In 2007, Bupa completed the sale of its UK hospitals business to Spire Healthcare. Bupa's rationale was that the scale of both its UK hospitals and insurance businesses meant that they were becoming increasingly constrained by being part of the same group.
Significant acquisitions followed. The largest of these was the merger of Bupa's insurance business in Australia with the insurance group MBF to form what was then Australia's second largest private medical insurer. In 2011, Bupa Australia brought together the insurance brands MBF, HBA and Mutual Community under the Bupa brand. Bupa acquired the Amity Group of care homes in Australia in 2007.
In 2010, Bupa launched a partnership in India with Max India Ltd. In 2019, Bupa completed the transition to a new partner, True North, while retaining a 44.42% stake in the business, which is now branded Niva Bupa.
Since 2010
In 2012, Bupa acquired the largest private healthcare network in Poland, LUX MED, from the private equity fund Mid Europa Partners for €400m.
Other acquisitions in this period included: Dental Corporation, Australia and New Zealand's largest dental provider; Quality HealthCare, a private clinic network in Hong Kong; a 49% stake in Highway to Health, Inc., a US health insurer specialising in providing international health insurance for US residents planning to live or work abroad.
In February 2015, Bupa acquired a controlling share in Chilean private healthcare network Cruz Blanca. In 2016, Bupa became the sole owner of Cruz Blanca (branded as Bupa Chile). Bupa Chile opened a major hospital in Santiago in 2018.
In 2016, Bupa acquired Care Plus, a health insurance business in Brazil.
In the UK, in 2016, Bupa sold its home healthcare medication delivery division to Celesio AG.
In 2017, Bupa completed the purchase of Oasis Dental Care, the UK's leading private dental provider with 380 practices, for £835 million, from Bridgepoint, a Private Equity group. As a result, Bupa became a major dental provider. The business has since grown to around 490 clinics in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. Bupa operates dental practices in the Republic of Ireland under the Smiles Dental brand.
In the UK, in August 2017, it sold 122 care homes, with 9,000 beds, to HC-One for £300 million. 22 further homes were sold to Advinia Healthcare.
In 2018, Sanitas acquired Nectar Seguros, a Spanish private health insurer.
In January 2019, Bupa acquired Acibadem Sigorta in Turkey. Bupa Acıbadem Sigorta is Turkey's second largest health insurer with both corporate and individual customers. Headquartered in Istanbul, it insures 600,000 people. In December 2020, Bupa México announced the acquisition of BBVA México's medical services provider Vitamédica. In January 2021, in the UK, the transfer of CS Healthcare's business and 17,500 members to Bupa completed.
Iñaki Ereño became Group CEO in January 2021. Ereño was previously the CEO of Bupa's Europe and Latin America and CEO of Sanitas. The joint position was subsequently filled by Iñaki Peralta and, since 2026, by Carlos Jaureguizar.
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the resulting war, Bupa announced that it would be ending relations with businesses in Russia and Russian-controlled businesses.
Through its business in Poland, Lux/Med, Bupa has been working with the authorities and other institutions to offer urgent free medical assistance to refugees from Ukraine through its 258 medical centres and 13 hospitals. It has set up teams of paramedics, doctors and medical equipment to solve the problems of the refugees and their families, as well as providing employment for Ukrainian medial staff in its facilities.
Foundations
Bupa supports a number of grant-giving foundations in different countries which work on health and social issues. During the COVID19 pandemic there was an extra effort to support communities through its charitable foundations in Australia, UK and Spain. A Healthy Communities Fund was established, with a special emphasis on mental health and wellbeing in schools.
United Kingdom
The Bupa UK Foundation focuses on grant-giving and charity partnerships around mental health. These include Beyond Words for World Mental Health Day supported by Cheltenham Festivals, Mind, National Literacy Trust.
Australia
The Bupa Health Foundation is one of the leading charitable foundations dedicated to health in Australia. The foundation invests in research that claims to improve health and it collaborates with researchers across academic, industry and healthcare communities. It advocates for researchers, organisations and initiatives that are improving health capacity building by developing skills and networks of health and medical researchers. Over the last 10 years the foundation has invested more than AUS$35 million in partnerships. Focus areas include youth mental health including partnerships with Kids Helpline, Macquarie University Centre for Emotional Health, Edith Cowan University.
Spain
The Fundacion Sanitas focuses on inclusive sports, the recognition of young doctors in Spain, the health and well-being of caregivers of people with dementia, cooperation in health and research in cardiovascular diseases.
From Wikipedia’s article on Bupa, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5