Apollo To Focus On Hospital Management Abroad

The Rs 450 crore Apollo Group of medicare institutions has decided not to make fresh investment on opening hospitals abroad but concentrate on taking over management of existing ones.

"We have already bid for four hospitals in the Middle East to take over the management and we have already shortlisted one of them. This way we save on deployment of capital and also improve our bottomline," said Apollo managing director P Sangeetha Reddy today.

Apollo Group is at present engaged in the setting up of two major hospitals in the Middle East -- the 250-bedded Al Suwaidi in Saudi Arabia and the 150-bedded Al Ahliah in Muscat. It also has a medical centre in Dubai.

The group's other ventures abroad include the upcoming 350-bedded Lanka Hospitals Corporation in Colombo, the 100-bedded Sidhartha Hospital in Kathmandu and the 250-bedded STS Holdings in Dhaka.

In the domestic market, Apollo will concentrate on franchising clinics to be run by doctors. A beginning in this respect will be made in Maharashtra where five such franchisees will be finalised by December.

According to Reddy, the franchisee holder for these clinics will have to make an investment of a minimum of Rs 1 crore. Apollo will charge Rs 15 lakh as franchisee fee from each clinics and also four per cent of the turnover. The architectural design as well as the detailed systems will be provided by Apollo.

It will also provide the clinics with its ready-made clinic software and specialised franchisee management package. The Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore has agreed to train the franchisee holders.

Apollo plans to extend the programme to the entire country in a phased way. "The first two franchisee clinics will be operational in Maharashtra by the year-end. Based on their performance, we hope to extend the scheme to other parts of the country," said Reddy.