IHH plans to go big in China, India

by JF Fri 14 Jun 2013, 11:03

KUALA LUMPUR: [url=http://archives.thestar.com.my/search/?q=IHH Healthcare Bhd]IHH Healthcare Bhd[/url], Asia's largest hospital operator, plans to increase its presence in China and India to capitalise on the huge population base there, according to [url=http://archives.thestar.com.my/search/?q=Dr Lim Cheok Ping]managing director Dr Lim Cheok Ping[/url].
“It is actually part of our next five-year plan. We want to penetrate both markets in a big way,” he said, adding,
“We want to manage more and own more hospitals in both countries.”
Lim was speaking to reporters at Invest Malaysia 2013 yesterday.
On a separate note, he said the unrest in Turkey would not impact the healthcare player's business at the moment.
“But if it's prolonged, then it might have some impact,” he said.
He expects the company's hospital in Turkey to start contributing to group profit in three years.
On its latest addition, the 320-bed City International Hospital in Vietnam, Lim said it was scheduled to receive its first batch of patients early next week.
“The reason we prefer to manage the hospital in Vietnam is because it is a new market for us. We want to understand the market first, and if it makes economic sense, then we would probably buy the hospital or build a new one,” he explained.
It had been previously reported that Vietnam was IHH's second country expansion out of its main bases of Malaysia and Singapore subsequent to its public listing last year.
The nine-storey hospital, located in the International Hi-Tech Healthcare Park in Ho Chi Minh City, is managed by [url=http://archives.thestar.com.my/search/?q=Parkway Pantai Ltd]Parkway Pantai Ltd[/url], a unit of IHH.
The company also announced in March a hospital deal in Hong Kong, which entails it spending RM2bil to build a private hospital in the city-state with a company owned by Cheng Yu-tung, one of its four richest billionaires.
Lim is targeting the hospital to be completed in 2016 and commissioned by 2017.
On its Singapore venture, meanwhile, Lim said, the business contributed some 80% of the company's profits, with the rest coming from Malaysia.