Apollo Hospitals chairman makes daughter ED

Shobana Kamineni, one of the four daughters of Prathap C Reddy, executive chairman of Apollo Hospitals Enterprises, was today appointed executive director.

The Chennai-based corporate hospital chain got shareholders’ approval at the company’s annual general meeting today to appoint Kamineni executive director — special initiatives for five years from February 1, 2010 to January 31, 2015. She will get remuneration at 0.5 per cent of the net profit of the company.

Kamineni was appointed an additional director of the company on January 28. She will join her two sisters, Suneeta Reddy, executive director for finance, and Sangita Reddy, the executive director, operations.

Preetha Reddy, eldest daughter, is MD of the group, which reported 34 per cent growth in profit for the year ended March 31, at Rs 137.6 crore compared to Rs 102.4 crore a year earlier.

Kamineni has a degree in economics and did a hospital management course from Columbia University. She has over 20 years experience in the health care industry. She was involved in establishing the group’s projects at Chennai, Hyderabad and Delhi. She is currently involved with the pharmaceutical, retailing and supply chain management divisions, besides the franchising of clinical trials, research and health insurance.

Apollo to establish ‘wellness city’ in Pune
Apollo Hospitals is to set up a ‘wellness city’, within the Lavasa Hill City, near Pune, which would attract investments worth Rs 2,000 crore. The proposed city will be developed with partners and emphasise overall wellness and rejuvenation programmes.

After addressing the hospital’s shareholders at the annual general meeting, Prathap C Reddy, founder and executive chairman, said 200 acres at Lavasa Hill City had been acquired.

“We will create a one-of-its kind healthcare and wellness destination in the world that will encompass rejuvenation, world-class medical care, health education, research and others,” said Reddy.

He said the project will attract an investment of Rs 2,000 crore. “This will be invested by individual promoters. We are thinking more like a special economic zone model (SEZ) concept, not in terms of tax or exports but more on the operations side, whereby each individual company will put their facility, while we provide the land.”

Work on a 100-bed hospital was launched recently as part of the project. Various departments will be equipped and the time schedule is about three years for this. Phase-II will comprise the creation of a “360-degree healthcare presence”.

“Proposals have been received from leading architects globally and three of the top 10 architects in the world have been short-listed for developing the master plan and the architectural design for the proposed phase-II of the wellness and healthcare destination,” according to a statement from Lavasa.

This is being modelled on the lines of similar centres in Switzerland, Boston and San Fransisco. A senior team has been working on the wellness concepts and has thoroughly researched the wellness needs of the customer, said Reddy.

Lavasa is being developed by Hindustan Construction Company over 12,500 acres of land.