Narayana Hrudayalaya, the Bangalore-based cardiac care hospital, is set to unlock its real estate holdings to raise Rs 500 crore for expansion.
The hospital, owned by cardiac surgeon Devi Shetty, is planning to build a 5,000-bed hospital -- christened Health City -- each in Kolkata, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Raipur, Jamshedpur, Bhopal and Delhi in addition to the one in Bangalore.
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Narayana Hrudayalaya currently owns three hospitals in Bangalore and Kolkata with a total bed capacity of 2,500. The first Health City is already being built at Bangalore with specialities, including cardiac, cancer, orthopaedics, eye care, neurology, and child- and women care.
The hospital major has started construction of a 1,000-bed heart hospital on a 40-acre plot in Jaipur, and has been offered 37 acres in Ahmedabad by the Gujarat government and 25 acres by a private builder in Delhi.
It is ramping up its Kolkata facility with a new 25-acre campus where it will add 5,000 beds. The Tata Trust in Jamshedpur has offered Narayana Hrudayalaya an existing hospital to build a 5,000-bed Health City.
Sources close to this firm indicate that the land which Narayana Hrudayalaya has got from various state governments have come in at a subsidized cost and the entire expanse of area may not be put to use to build hospitals. “At the most, a third of the land at various locations is likely to be utilised for building the hospital. The rest can be commercially exploited,” the source noted.
Industry information indicates that various real estate private equity funds have shown interest in this concept. "This unlocking will obviously help building the hospitals," the source added.
This move by Narayana Hrudayalaya comes just months after the firm raised Rs 400 crore through private equity route from JP Morgan and AIG for building a nationwide chain of hospitals.
Each of these health cities will have a 1,000-bed heart hospital and another 3,000-4,000 beds for other specialties like cancer, neurology and paediatric. The plan is to start with 5,000-bed hospitals, reaching 20,000 beds in a five-year time span.
