Fortis to double capacity; focus on south, west mkts

Fortis Healthcare, the second-largest healthcare provider in the country, plans to expand its footprint and invest about half-a-billion dollar in doubling its capacity by 2012, with a focus on southern and western markets.

The company would have a mix of greenfield projects, acquisition and management contracts to expand its reach in the Indian market, Fortis MD Shivinder Mohan Singh told reporters here today, while sharing Fortis' plans and unveiling the new logo of Fortis Hospital at Seshadripuram in the city.

He said the "required" investment to enhance capacity from 27 hospitals of 3,000-bed capacity to 40 hospitals of 6,000-bed capacity would be close to half-a-billion dollars. Fortis' investment in expansion would depend on whether these were greenfield projects, acquisitions for management contracts.

The company had also sent an application to Sebi for a Rs 1,000-crore rights issue, he said.

Stating that the company's hub-and-spoke model, where the spokes were multi-speciality hospitals connected to a hub, which was super-specialty or centre of excellence, he said there were certain areas that Fortis had decided to focus for centres of excellence and had been doing so in five areas.

These included renal sciences and orthopaedics, he said, adding that the company is keen on adding cancer care and gastrosciences. "With the addition of these two centres of excellence, we would have completed our first suite of specialty in our portfolio," he said.