Manipal to expand hospital biz

The Manipal Group is in talks to acquire Nanavati Hospital in Mumbai, another one in Delhi (Dwarka) and a few abroad, senior executives said.

In the next three years, the group will expand from 5,000 beds to 8,000. Of these, 1,250 beds will be in hospitals abroad. The expansion will cost about Rs 1,000 crore and will be financed through internal accruals, debt and private equity.

The Manipal Group is a Karnataka-based education and healthcare major. It also plans to set up speciality hospitals like mother and child care, and home health care. These are in addition to the neighbourhood clinics it has started setting up.

The group has 5,000 beds in 15 hospitals and 3,500 of these are attached to its medical schools. Most of the beds to be added will be in non-teaching hospitals. The diversification would include expansion into west and north India, and abroad, said Swaminathan Dandapani, vice-chairman, Manipal Health Enterprises.

Over the next three years, the group will set up 40-50 clinics too. Unlike the earlier attempt at retail healthcare through the Manipal Cure & Care, this time the group will offer more specialisation. "Thus, it will fill the gap left by general practitioners who are unavailable in many areas. These will be specialised clinics," added Dandapani.

The group has started a hospital in Jaipur and is all set to finalise buying one in Delhi soon. Part of the future expansion is a 300-bed hospital in Whitefield in eastern Bangalore and on Bellary Road near Hebbal, towards the international airport north of Bangalore.

The group, which till now focussed on metros and tier-I cities catering to the upper and upper middle classes, feels it can cater to the "bottom of the pyramid".  

The group also intends to look at public-private partnerships to offer the government expertise it has developed over the years in public health.

These developments are part of an ongoing growth strategy to expand the group's footprint across India and West Asia, Africa and south-east Asian nations. For its foray into Africa, the group was offering to set up and run hospitals and medical schools, said S Vaitheeswaran, CEO, Manipal Global Education Services. The group had made an offer to the government of Nigeria, he added.

NEW AVENUES

• In the next three years, the Manipal Group will expand from 5,000 beds to 8,000
• The expansion will cost about Rs 1,000 crore and will be financed through internal accruals, debt and private equity
• The diversification would include expansion into West and North India, and abroad, said Swaminathan Dandapani, vice-chairman, Manipal Health Enterprises