Aster DM Healthcare ups stake in Saudi hospital for Rs 1.6k cr

Dubai-based Aster DM Healthcare, which has presence in West Asia and India, has acquired an additional 57 per cent stake in Sanad Hospital in Saudi Arabia for AED 900 million (around Rs 1,600 crore).
With this investment, the company has consolidated its position and increased its shareholding to 97 per cent in the hospital, Aster DM Healthcare said in a statement.
Sanad Hospital is a private tertiary care facility with over 250 beds, located in Riyadh in the central region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
In 2011, the company had acquired 40 per cent stake in hospital marking its entry into Saudi Arabia.

"This investment is a reiteration of our commitment to provide advanced medical care of the highest quality at affordable cost to the residents of Saudi Arabia," Aster DM Healthcare Chairman Azad Moopen said.
Aster DM Healthcare has been steadily expanding its footprint in GCC and India. The company had launched operations in Bahrain earlier in the year.

With the Sanad Hospital acquisition, Aster DM Healthcare now has presence in all the six GCC countries, Jordan and the Philippines.
The company also has five greenfield projects underway in GCC countries, including one hospital in Qatar and four in the United Arab Emirates.

In India, the group has three hospitals in Kerala (Kozhikode, Kottakal, Kochi), two in Maharashtra (Pune, Kolhapur), two in Telangana (Hyderabad) and one in Karnataka (Bengaluru).
For its greenfield hospital in Kochi, the company had invested Rs 550 crore. Besides, the company has earmarked an investment outlay of Rs 230 crore into Aster CMI Hospital in Bengaluru.
The company has a bed capacity of 2,500 beds spread across India and GCC.