Financialization, accumulation, and shareholding changes in companies and corporate groups in the Brazilian health sector

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the shareholding dimension of changes in companies and corporate groups in the Brazilian health sector from 2008 to 2017. The idea was to understand the strategies of accumulation in a context of financialization, defined as a systemic pattern of wealth in contemporary capitalism. The shareholding changes were submitted to descriptive and exploratory analysis based on different sources. We studied 58 companies from the subsectors of health plans, pharmacies, hospitals, diagnostics, pharmaceutical industry, and social organizations. Data were collected on the legal structure, ownership, and control, equity operations, and economic and patient care activities. Despite the heterogeneity of the companies and their strategies, the results point to an increase in the presence of domestic and international investors, changes in internal organization, capital, financing, and diversification of activities. The companies that stood out were actively pursuing capitalization via foreign investments, purchase and share of assets and shares, and mergers and acquisitions, accelerating the process of expansion, accumulation, and shareholding and financial appreciation. The result is an increase in capital flows and growing integration of economic and patient care structures in the Brazilian health sector with financial circuits, thereby linking peripheral intermediate companies to an expanded process of accumulation under financial dominance. The findings corroborate striking aspects of corporate dynamics in financialization that increasingly influence health systems in Brazil and the world.