Devi Shetty set for Malaysian foray

Narayana Hrudayalaya, the Bangalore-based cardiac care hospital chain, is closing in on a deal to acquire a 400-bed multi-specialty hospital in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) for close to Rs 200 crore.

The Rs 350-crore cardiac care chain, started by Dr Devi Shetty, is expected to finalise the acquisition in a couple of months and will start operations by January next year.

Narayana Hrudayalaya (NH) is expected to treat the hospital as a special purpose vehicle into which it will funnel external institutional and high networth individuals’ investments. While NH is also expected to invest to a certain extent, most of it will go into buying equipment and on managing the hospital.

“On an average we get 25 patients from Malaysia every month and we are known to an extent in the medical community in that country. So we are entering Malaysia to further our network,” a senior official of NH said.

The move to enter Malaysia comes post its plans to enter Mexico by setting up a health city project with a strategic partner. Narayana Hrudayalaya is also understood to be working on plans to start operations at Madagascar, on the east coast of Africa.

Narayana Hrudayalaya will work with the government there and will not be setting up its own base to start with. This decision by NH to dot a few global locations comes even as it expands its operations in India across 10 cities and towns to develop 3,000 - 5,000-bed health city project catering to pediatrics, cardiac, cancer, orthopedics, neurology, eye care among others.

Narayana Hrudayalaya owns three hospitals across Bangalore and Kolkata with a total bed capacity of 2,500.

In addition to this, health cities are being planned in Kolkata, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Raipur, Jamshedpur, Bhopal and Delhi. The hospital, in early 2008, had raised Rs 400 crore from AIG and J P Morgan to expand the health city project.