Healthcare Global to set up 12 new hospitals in 18 months

August 23, 2017

Healthcare Global Enterprises (HCG), a Bengaluru-based chain of specialised cancer care centres, plans to set up a dozen new hospitals over the next 18 months, the publicly traded company’s chairman, BS Ajai Kumar, said.

HCG plans to expand its network of cancer care centres to about 30 from 21 now, and will add a few more IVF clinics to its existing network, Kumar told ET. HCG has a partnership with Kamini Rao, a leading medical practitioner in the field of assisted reproduction, to run IVF clinics under the brand name ‘Milann’. The IVF clinics contributed about a tenth of HCG’s revenues of Rs 700 crore for the previous financial year. Founded 27 years ago by Kumar, a doctor trained at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, the hospital chain has expanded to include centres in cities such as Cuttack, Ahmedabad and Vijayawada.

It recently acquired a facility in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, and is scouting for more facilities in Africa and the Middle East. It recently acquired a facility in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, and is scouting for more facilities in Africa and the Middle East.

Kumar, 66, who returned to India after practicing as a medical and radiation oncologist for nearly two decades in the US, said HCG’s model-—what he described as ‘value based medicine’— has been chosen as a case study by the Harvard Business Review and the World Bank, as the hospital chain has been able to drive down the cost of cancer treatment to almost a tenth of global prices in some cases while achieving the same outcomes

The hospital chain has a stated policy of not to invest in land and takes up facilities on lease rental model from owners. In certain cases, it also enters into partnerships with doctors who own the land and building. A 60-bed facility could cost as much as Rs 35-40 crore to build, not including real estate costs, according to Kumar.

HCG raised Rs 650 crore through an initial public offering of shares in March last year. International Finance Corporation, the private sector investment arm of the World Bank, and Canadian pension fund manager Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec were among investors that subscribed to shares in the offering. The family office of Wipro founder Azim Premji and Singapore state investor Temasek divested partial stakes in the IPO but continue to remain prominent investors in the company