Fortis plans $500 m expansion

Fortis Healthcare has drawn up a $500-million plan to expand its network in and outside the country by 2010 and may float a public issue to raise funds.

The plan envisages acquisitions as well as greenfield projects, which will include a hospital in Srinagar, and is in addition to the acquisition of Escorts Hospital and Research Institute.

The company is also open to management contracts and executing hospital projects for others. "The investment outlay till 2010 would be about $500 million as a ballpark figure. It is not a factored number as a lot depends on how the rollout pans out but it doesn't include our past acquisitions like Escorts," said Fortis group managing director Shivinder M Singh.

The Delhi-based healthcare company, promoted by the Singh brothers - Malvinder and Shivinder - of Ranbaxy Laboratories, now has 10 hospitals in Mohali, Delhi, Faridabad, Noida and Amritsar.

"We were looking to reach a critical mass which we believe we have reached now and now we are debating whether it would be through a public listing or private placement. As a group, we prefer the public route," said Singh.

The group has forayed into the contract research space with its Fortis Clinical Research Services. It is looking at creating a chain of hospital pharmacies and has drawn up a Rs 1,000-crore (Rs 110 billion) plan to set up a medical complex on the lines of Medicity in Gurgaon.

"The senior team is fully conscious that in the five year period closing 2010, Fortis should be in a leadership position at the national level, have 5-6 specialties for which it is known nationally and hopefully, even internationally," said Singh.

Among the next Fortis ventures are hospitals lined up in Vasant Kunj, Delhi, and another in Srinagar. The two hospitals are expected to be operational in about a month.

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