DM Healthcare to set up new units in the UAE and India

Introduction:

Dubai-based hospital group Aster DM has announced plans to open three new hospitals in the UAE as a part of its expansion plans across the GCC. It has also hinted that its Dubai-based division DM Healthcare is set to make new acquisitions in India. The group is in talks to make new acquisitions in Hyderabad and Bangalore by next month.

Background:

DM Healthcare currently runs seven hospitals in the Gulf and four in India. It manages and runs around 156 units that comprise of hospitals, medical centres, diagnostic centres and pharmacies under six brands Aster, Access, Medcare, MIMS, WIMS and Aster MedCity.

It is in the process of opening three hospitals in the UAE. In its India unit, the group is also operating 3 eye care centres in the capital under the brand name Aster Eyecare, apart from its 4 hospitals (Calicut, Kottakal, Pune and Kholapur).

Expansion plans:

Dubai:

Among the three new hospitals announced, the group is planning to construct two facilities in Dubai and one in Sharjah. In Dubai, one hospital located in Mankhool will have 85 beds while the other, a mother and child super speciality hospital, with 75 beds, will be located on Sheikh Zayed road. The third hospital, in Sharjah, with a bed capacity of 110 is nearing completion and is scheduled to open soon. The three hospitals will offer a combined bed capacity of 270 beds.

The group is also currently developing a fourth hospital in Qatar, which is scheduled to open in 2015.

India:

DM healthcare has divulged plans to invest Rs 4000 crore (also include in US$) over the next five years. The group has announced an investment worth Rs 1,800 crore (US$300 million) on various projects in West Asia and Africa and also include in Rs. ($300 million) in India with expansion plans.

The group is looking forward to acquire around three hospitals in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore for net worth of Rs 300 crore ($48.371m). The group has appointed Bank of America Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs as its bankers for the IPO. The expansion in India is based on 'hub and spoke' model in tier II and tier III cities.

Aster DM also plans to open its new hospital complex in the southern Indian state of Kerala in the first quarter of 2014.

The mega project, dubbed Aster Medicity, will have several super speciality hospitals under a single campus that is spread across 40 acres of land. The project is being developed at an investment of $300 million and will have a bed capacity of 1,100.

The medicity will also be partnering with international institutions such as Johns Hopkins Medicine International- USA, The Hospital for Sick Children and University of Toronto, the group said.

Future plans:

By 2015 the group plans to increase its beds to 4,000 beds from current 1,500 beds.

With the launch of the new hospitals across the Middle East, which has an estimated investment of Dhs 260 m ($70.8 m),the bed capacity of Aster DM hospitals will increase to 5,000 from 1,850.

In addition, the healthcare conglomerate is also planning to roll out another 25 medical centres and 150 pharmacies across the GCC by the end of 2015, in order to achieve its planned 300 units by 2017.

Aster DM currently has operations across the GCC and employs around 15,000 workers across its units.