Hemas Plans to Build 4th Hopital in Ratmalana Taking into Account Area’s Growing Middle Class

20th March 2013, www.dailymirror.lk

Hemas Hospitals Private Limited, the fully owned subsidiary of Hemas Holding PLC sending a strong signal to sector rivals yesterday revealed plans to construct its next hospital in Ratmalana, taking into account the area’s growing middle class. This will take the total number of Hemas hospitals to four.

Responding to a question by Mirror Business on future plans, Chairman Murtaza Esufally said they had recently purchased one acre of land to the value of Rs.250 million in an area between Ratmalana and Moratuwa for this purpose.

“In fact we see a vast potential in this particular area and a survey carried out prior to the decision too showed the growing middle income earning population which warrants quality healthcare facilities in Ratmalana,” he said.

Speaking on the investment of the project he noted that it will be around US $ 10 million (Rs. 1.3 billion) for a typical 60-bed hospital similar to the one being constructed at Thalawatugoda.

In another interesting revelation, it was indicated that it takes at least 7-8 years to recover the initial investment which is usually referred to as the payback period in Finance. Esufally who was tight lipped on the financial performance (as it is unlisted) however said that Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation & Amortization (EBITDA), a financial performance yardstick in the hospital sector had been positive throughout.

Hemas Hospitals spent US $ 1.6 million for the 100-bed facility located at Wattala four years ago, followed by another US $ 500 million for the 50-bed Galle hospital and another US $ 1.4 billion for Thalawatugoda facility. Mirror Business exclusive reported on Hemas’ plans to put up hospitals in Thalawatugoda and Ratmalana back in January 2011 even before the start of the two projects.

Ambitious Esufally confided that the company’s plans were afoot to add another 600 beds (about 10 hospitals) touching at least one quarter of the populations’ lives within the next eight years. Esufally who did not rule out the possible expansion in the heart of Colombo said the company’s main strategy was to target the middle income earning category particularly in the suburbs. “Leveraging the four year experience in hospital business, 65 years heritage & the market leadership in the pharmaceutical industry (with a market share of 17-18 percent), we are quite confident that we could in the long run become the market leader in the healthcare sector,” he remarked. Nine months results to December 31 showed the healthcare sector contributing to the group with the highest revenue of Rs. 6.7 billion demonstrating a Year-on-Year growth of 22 percent. The sector bottom line too grew by 33 percent over the same period last year to Rs. 360 million.

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State of the Art Cancer Care Facility in Sri Lanka by a Leading Indian Provider Health Care Global. Local Investment is Sought

22nd May 2010, www.sundaytimes.lk, By Chanaka de Silva

HealthCare Global Enterprises Ltd (HCG), which says its one of the leading cancer care facilities in India, is seeking investment or partnerships to set up a state of the art facility here in Sri Lanka.

Health Care Global Director Marketing Dinesh Madhavan told the Business Times that, “We are looking for Government partnership or a joint venture with a local partner. We have found that there is large requirement for bone marrow transplants and Thalassemia treatment for patients in Sri Lanka. Usually these patients would have to travel to India to receive treatment. Once our facility is set up it will enable patients here to receive treatment conveniently and at a much lesser cost.”

Commenting on the type of investment sought, Mr Madhavan said they require the local party to put up the land and building whilst they will provide the technical knowhow medical expertise and equipment. The total investment is estimated at US$6.2 million of which their contribution will be $2.8 million. HCG with its headquarters in Bangalore is believed to be South Asia's largest cancer care provider, and is the only dedicated cancer care network with quality care across 18 centres. The centre treats over 30,000 new patients a year.

“For over five years HCG has been defining the future of cancer care in India by designing, building and managing cancer centres with a steadfast vision: to transform cancer care environment by bringing core clinical services to one central place. The intent of this single place is to help patients achieve longer, better lives - and to improve one cancer care centre at a time. HCG manages a network of 19 hospitals across South Asia, making it the largest cancer care network of hospitals,” the company said.

Mr Madhavan, during a exploratory visit to Colombo, said the company is also approaching the Sri Lankan Ministry of Health to facilitate doctors and medical persons to visit HCG Bangalore for training purpose. Further Indian doctors will visit Sri Lanka periodically to conduct medical consultation camps and continuous medical education in the months to come.

The facilities available for the patients at HCG are the latest in use today. They are Medical Oncology, Surgical Oncology, Radiation Oncology, Cyber knife , Hemato Oncology, Maxillo Facial Department, Pediatric Oncology, Gynec Oncology, Bone marrow transplant,Nuclear Medicine Department, Radiology Department, a 24/7 Blood Bank with cell component and Pheresis facility, Triesta Sciences, State-of-the-Art Cancer Bio Marker Research and Diagnostics laboratory with a Laser Capture Microscope, Biological Safety Cabinet /Cytotoxic drug mixing cabinet: For chemo drug mixing and Dialysis Unit. Besides the above the ultra modern imaging facilities available are X-Ray,Ultra Sound,CT Scan, HD 128 Slice PET CT ,PET MRI, Cyclotron, Magneton Skyra 3 Tesla MRI, Myocardial Blood Flow, Dotonac Scan, Doppler, and Full Field Digital Mammogrphy.

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Fortis Oasis Cardiac Centre at Oasis Hospital. Sri Lankan Private Hospital in Rs200mn Expansion Targets Medical Tourism

05th April 2011, www.dailynews.lk, By Indunil Hewage

Oasis Hospitals (Pvt) Ltd is on a Rs 200 million hospital upgrading process. Out of Rs 200 million the hospital has already invested Rs 120 million for the ongoing upgrading.

Oasis Hospitals Chief Executive Medical Officer Dr Prasad Medawatte said Oasis will inject around Rs 200 million to upgrade the hospital particularly in specialized medical fields. They are also in the process of upgrading the nephrology and neurology units.

“In addition we have already commenced medical tourism with Maldives and are going to launch it very soon.

“Our consultants will go there for visiting clinics and foreign clients will come to Sri Lanka to undergo cosmetic surgeries,” he said.

“However we do not see an increasing demand for cosmetic surgeries in Sri Lanka due to the high cost of the surgeries,” Dr Medawatte said. Commenting on the private healthcare industry in the country Medawatte said the industry is expected to record around 25 to 50 percent growth in 2011.

This was revealed at a press briefing held to announce the partnership between Oasis Hospitals (Pvt) Ltd and Fortis Malar Hospitals Chennai.

Fortis Malar Hospitals Ltd, a subsidiary of Fortis Healthcare teamed up with Oasis Hospitals to extend its cardiac expertise in Sri Lanka.

Fortis Malar Hospitals Ltd has taken over the operations and management of the “Fortis Oasis Cardiac Centre” at the Oasis Hospitals Colombo.

Oasis Hospitals Chairperson K M Edirisinghe said the hospital is committed to provide tertiary level treatment and care in cardiology and cardiac surgery with the assistance of Fortis Malar.

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Sri Lanka as a Health Tourism Destination, New Hospital in Kandy, Ashok Pathirage of Softlogic Explores Potential

07th February 2011, www.dailynews.lk, By Sanjeevi Jayasuriya

Sri Lanka has a well developed healthcare sector and the country should promote health tourism where there is a huge potential in the international market.

The country’s medical sector is highly qualified and is capable of providing specialized treatment. Sri Lanka could be promoted as a health tourism destination with the expected influx of tourists, Softlogic Holdings Chairman Ashok Pathirage told Daily News Business.

“We could offer specialized services as the country has international standard hospitals and medical staff. Not only ayurveda treatment but western medication could be provided for the foreigners thereby earning foreign exchange,” he said. The focus should be to become a treatment centre similar to services offered by Singapore.

The authorities should encourage modern private healthcare institutions to attract foreign patients. The sector needs incentives to upgrade its hospitals to be on par with international standards.

More people patronize the private healthcare sector at present as it has become affordable to them. One of the main reasons for the increased use of private hospitals is most of the users have medical insurance.

There should be insurance covers to reach a wider cross section of the society as the country will have a large elderly population in years to come, he said.

Softlogic Holdings is working on a health insurance cover to embark on health tourism in a big way. As tourism is picking up in a great way Sri Lanka could market this concept internationally through tour operators, he said. The Softlogic Holdings Company will set up a state-of-the- art hospital in Kandy with a substantial investment.

This most up-to-date hospital is at the designing stage and will comprise 100 rooms. The fully equipped hospital will be ready for public in 30 months.

The company also plans to set up a sophisticated cancer treatment centre and negotiations are currently underway.

The Central Hospital which is owned by the Softlogic Holdings is of international standard and the company is ready to cater to the international market, Pathirage said.

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Top Indian Hospital Chains Eye Sri Lanka

15th August 2010, www.thebottomline.lk, By Indika Sakalasooriya

With two of the top hospital chains in India eying overseas expansion, local analysts are excited about the possibility of either one or both of them investing in the healthcare business in Sri Lanka.

According to Indian media, Apollo Hospitals, India’s industry leader is looking for contracts to manage hospitals abroad, while Fortis Healthcare is aggressively looking for acquisitions as an expansion strategy. Further, Fortis is evidently preparing for other opportunities beyond India to become Asia’s healthcare leader after their battle to acquire Singapore-based hospital chain Parkway Holdings.

Fortis Chairman, Malvinder Singh was recently quoted in the Indian media reports as saying “there are a heap of opportunities we have already identified which we will evaluate and engage with”.

He added that the company has $800-900 million in cash and an established line of credit, which would be used for the acquisition of one or more assets outside India.
Apollo, India’s largest hospital operator which exited Sri Lanka following a hostile takeover of its hospital by a local business tycoon has a stake in a Mauritius hospital, its only investment overseas, but manages a few hospitals overseas on contract.

“An Indian hospital chain can operate successfully in Sri Lanka due to two major reasons. The first being it can help to offer cheaper drugs and services to patients and the other is Sri Lanka doesn’t have the bed capacity needed in light of the projected increase in grey heads in future” a stock market analyst who doesn’t want to be identified said.

According to recent labour ministry data, the percentage of people above the age group of 60 years increased from 6.3% in 1971 to 9.2% in 2001 and was estimated by the United Nations at 11% in 2008. By 2031, 21.9% of the people will be over 60 years, or one out of four will be an aged citizen.

“Now the no-brainer is the tourism industry. Almost everyone is looking to put-up a hotel somewhere to be a part of the expected tourism boom. Healthcare poses almost the same opportunities being a defensive sector with strong growth prospects” another analyst said.

He also pointed out that health insurance facilities and medical benefit schemes provided by corporate employers also play a major role when analyzing the growth prospects of healthcare sector in the country. “This has supported and in demand for paid private sector healthcare services which will continue” he said.

He remarked that the number of beds in government run hospitals is almost stagnant due to budgetary constraints. “This allows private sector both local and foreign investors to make money by setting up new and expanding the existing ones”.
At present about 25% of the total hospitals in the country are private owned (numbering 174) with a total bed capacity of 8,650, i.e.15% of the total bed capacity of Sri Lanka, which is concentrated mostly in urban areas and especially in Colombo. According to Health Ministry data, the capacity of beds in the government hospitals amounts to 68905 in its1,016 hospitals.

Aureos South Asia Fund Invests in Central Hospital, Sri Lanka

16th December 2009, www.sundaytimes.lk

Aureos South Asia Fund LLC said on Wednesday it has invested Rs 366 million (US$3.2 million) for a 10% stake in the Asiri Group-controlled, Central Hospital (Pvt) Ltd.

At the same time John Keells Holdngs said it was also taking a more than 20 % stake in the same company.

The fund managed by Aureos Capital, a leading private equity fund manager focusing on investments in mid-cap enterprises in emerging markets worldwide. It focuses on investments in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.