2024-10-27 13:03:05 :
Alisha Moopen insists healthcare industry consolidation is not just about business but will also help deliver quality care to smaller towns.
“Doctors in Bangalore may not go to Kolhapur (about 600 kilometers away) to live, but they are willing to go to Kolhapur once a week or once a month to do surgeries that are not available in hospitals in Kolhapur.”, Moopen, deputy general manager of Aster DM Healthcare, said in an interview with Mint.
“So you actually end up being able to share resources, knowledge sharing, and have your doctors sitting in the subway, sitting in the city, who may be those doing more cutting-edge work at this time, going into second- and third-tier cities through this network, allowing They go there so they don’t have to come to the city,” Moopen said.
Another benefit of any merger would be increased network size, she said. “If the scale increases, my purchasing power and negotiating power will be greatly improved, and the benefits of this will hopefully be passed down.”
Moopen’s remarks come amid reports of a merger between Bengaluru-based Aster and Hyderabad-based Nursing Hospitals. According to a Mint report on August 5, the merged entity will become the third largest hospital chain in India.
Moopen had no comment on questions about the potential merger.
Aster said in a stock exchange filing in September that while the company regularly explores strategic opportunities, no material events have occurred that would require disclosure under the listing obligations and disclosure requirements of the Securities and Exchange Board of India.
However, Moopen said Aster would continue with plans to add nearly 2,000 beds over the next three years.
“Expansion requires proximity $1. 5 billion rupees; chain hospitals have been deployed in various places $250 crore in the last 6 to 12 months. then another $Rs 1,250 crore will be invested and will be funded mainly through internal accruals,” she said.
Aster currently has approximately 5,000 beds.
Global investors are flocking to
Investor interest in India’s healthcare sector is growing.
In October last year, Blackstone Group Inc. acquired controlling stakes in Care Hospitals and Kims Health in a $1 billion multi-level deal, the U.S. private equity firm’s first investment in India’s healthcare sector.
In April last year, Sheares Healthcare, a subsidiary of Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, agreed to acquire a controlling stake in Manipal Health Enterprises, increasing its shareholding ratio from 18% to nearly 59%. The acquisition took approximately $16,400 Crores. However, in February this year, Temasek, the investment arm of the Singapore government, sold an 8% stake in Manipal to Mubadala Investment Co., Novo Holdings and the California Public Employees Retirement System.
Most recently, in July this year, private equity giant KKR acquired a controlling stake in Infants Memorial Hospital in Kerala. The US private equity fund has also invested in drugmaker JB Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals Ltd, health technology company Infinx and medical device maker Healthium.
Additionally, Canada’s Ontario Teachers’ Pension Scheme owns a majority stake in Sahyadri Hospital in Pune.
“The hospital sector, which includes multi-specialty and single-specialty hospitals, nursing homes and other healthcare services, is the fastest growing sector so far in 2024 and is the center of deal activity,” the law firm said. Nishith Desai Associates in August stated in a report.
“This trend is expected to continue in the second half of 2024 and subsequent years, with the main focus being on increasing bed capacity and expanding the geographical coverage of such hospitals,” the report added.
Moopen said one of the factors leading to growing interest in India’s healthcare sector is increased insurance penetration due to the pandemic and the government’s Ayushman Bharat scheme.
The government’s National Public Health Insurance Scheme aims to provide free health insurance to low-income people. It currently covers about 500 million poor people across the country and is expanding to cover all citizens over the age of 70.
“People want to buy insurance because they want to know they are going to get quality care. Ayushmann Bharat is going to be the biggest turning point for people, for the world itself,” Moopen said.
“From a more future perspective, talking about the amount of data that is going to be transferred, taking care of 25% of the population through Ayushman Bharat, that will be a game-changer for healthcare in the world,” Moopen said. She explained that the vast amount of data about people’s health will Enables healthcare professionals to “run models that predict health.”
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