Apollo Hospitals to raise up to Rs 750 crore to fund expansion

Investment in Mumbai hospital pegged at Rs 550 cr; Bengaluru, Vizag to cost Rs 150 cr and Rs 170 cr respectively

Apollo Hospitals Enterprise will raise up to Rs 750 crore to fund expansion of its healthcare business in the next few months.

"Apollo Hospitals will raise up to Rs 750 crore through rights issue for the expansion of the hospitals in a couple of months," Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Chief Financial Officer Krishnan Akhileswaran told PTI.

The company's board has already approved this and "we are waiting for regulatory approvals," he added.

In May this year, proposal for a rights issue for an amount not exceeding Rs 750 crore to its shareholders was approved by the company's board, although the price was to be determined either by it or a committee later.

According to Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Joint MD Sangita Reddy, the healthcare chain's new hospitals will be in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Guwahati and Visakhapatnam.

The investment in the Mumbai hospital is around Rs 550 crore while Bengaluru and Visakhapatnam are slated to cost around Rs 150 crore and Rs 170 crore respectively.

The company's arm Apollo Health & Lifestyle Ltd (AHLL) is also planning to invest up to Rs 500 crore for expansion going forward. It is looking to raise funds through private equity partners.

AHLL operates a network of primary care and specially care formats across India.

In the primary care space, it has five formats - Apollo Clinics, Apollo Sugar, Apollo Diagnostics, Apollo White and Apollo Dialysis. It also has Apollo Cradle and Apollo Spectra Hospitals in its portfolio.