SAO PAULO, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Brazilian medical lab group Fleury SA on Monday said its board of directors had approved a fresh capital increase aimed at maintaining the firm's growth strategy and improving its cash position.

Fleury said in a securities filing it will issue up to 70,567,969 shares to be priced at 17.27 reais apiece.

The total amount of the private capital increase will range from 602.6 million to 1.22 billion reais ($113.1-228.96 million), it said, noting it will issue a minimum 34,896,418 shares.

The pricing came in at a 6.5% discount over Fleury's closing price of 18.47 reais per share on Friday.

The Brazilian medical lab group has been expanding through acquisitions recently, including the purchase of smaller rival Instituto Hermes Pardini SA

announced in June

.

In the last few weeks, Fleury had also announced the acquisitions of eye care group Retina Clinic and medical lab firm Methodos Laboratorio. ($1 = 5.3284 reais) (Reporting by Gabriel Araujo; Editing by Steven Grattan)