Manipal Health Enterprises plans to add 12-14 hospitals to its network in five years

Fresh from Singapore's sovereign wealth fund Temasek acquiring a majority stake in it, Manipal Health Enterprises plans to add another 12-14 hospitals with around 4,000 beds to its network in the next five years, according to the company's Managing Director & CEO Dilip Jose.

The company is looking at both greenfield hospitals and acquisitions for its expansion, he said but did not disclose the investments lined up for the purpose.

"We have now 29 hospitals and 8,300 beds. We expect in the next five years 4,000 beds more to get added and that could be from about 12 to 14 hospitals," Jose told PTI.

When asked about investments for the expansion, he said the company does not normally divulge it.

"We are happy with our funding ability. We will not have an issue funding it, we are comfortable on our balance sheet. With the backers, with the investors that we have, the mandate that we have is go ahead and execute, funding will not be a concern," he asserted.

On the expansion programme, Jose said, "We are currently building three greenfields -- two more in Bangalore under construction and one greenfield in Raipur is under construction, and we are pursuing two acquisitions. So our next five year trajectory is a mix of greenfield and acquisitions."

The healthcare chain will look at greenfield projects more in locations where it is already present with multiple hospitals and can go deeper into that geography, he said, adding, "we prefer greenfield because we can build exactly what we want to construct".

On the other hand, Jose said, "To enter a new territory or new geography we prefer to look at an acquisition because that is quicker to the markets to provide access."

In terms of region, he said East India is an underserved area, where the chain has presence with only one hospital which it had acquired from Columbia Asia Hospitals Pvt Ltd.

"That's the only hospital (we have) but we believe East is underserved in quality healthcare, we would want to be there. That is the potential that we look at," he said.

He further said, "We are also interested in Hyderabad as a city. We have said in the past also, it's an adjoining geography to Karnataka."

Besides, the company is also "very interested in Kerala, for the reason that Manipal is a household name in Kerala on account of the educational pedigree that we have. Many people from Kerala travel to Manipal University for their higher education...Also, it is a natural extension of geography from Karnataka."

In the National Capital Region, he said Manipal Health Enterprises (MHE) would like two more hospitals to the existing three.

Last week, the company had announced that Singapore's sovereign wealth fund Temasek will buy an additional 41 per cent stake in it, taking its total shareholding to 59 per cent.

The deal was pegged at over Rs 16,300 crore (USD 2 billion), valuing MHE at around Rs 40,000 crore making it the largest deal in the Indian healthcare sector.

Temasek, which already has an 18 per cent stake in Manipal through a wholly-owned subsidiary Sheares Healthcare Group, will buy the additional stake from Manipal founder Ranjan Pai's family, TPG and the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF).

Jose declined to comment on the transaction but said although the proportion of shareholding has changed, the shareholders remain the same and the company would carry forward the practice of running the board by consensus.

"We have always been professionally managed, a board-run professionally managed company. Even when the Pai family had the majority at 52 per cent, they had separated ownership from management, not only for Manipal hospitals, but all their enterprises. All their group companies are run by professional CEOs and with an independent board."

The management team at MHE will also remain the same, Jose said adding,"It is a matter of continuity...The shareholding transactions are happening at shareholders' level or owners' level. At an operating company level at MHE, we have not changed. We have the same set of shareholders and the same management will run it."