UAE- Aster DM Healthcare targets India IPO by year end

(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Aster DM Healthcare plans to launch an initial public offering (IPO) by the end of 2016 or early next year in India to continue expansion plans chairman and managing director Dr Azad Moopen told Khaleej Times during an interview.

Dr Moopen declined to give further details of the IPO such as size and exact date. "I am not able to outline [the size] because of restrictions" he said. However he informed:"We have already appointed bankers and may be in the next six months [we] will get regulatory approval for the listing."

"We had the opportunity either to list in London or Dubai. After a lot of discussion and looking at different markets we chose India because the company is registered there" he explained.

Established in 1987 by Dr Moopen the company has expanded from a collection of small clinics to big hospitals. In addition to clinics hospitals and pharmacies it also runs research facilities and operates educational institutions and beauty clinics among others.

Expansion

Aster DM Healthcare opened its first medical centre in Sharjah under the Medcare brand a month ago and Moopen said the UAE would get more hospitals this year.

"We have six hospitals coming up in different parts of the Gulf. The UAE will get four hospitals soon. We will open one hospital in Sharjah and another in Dubai in a month or two" the chairman informed. The company is also working on a hospital in Abu Dhabi he added.

Talking about other Gulf countries he said: "We have a hospital which is almost ready in Qatar." The company has also invested significantly in pharmacies and clinics across the GCC he added.

Aster DM Healthcare operates more than 15 hospitals 80 clinics and 200 pharmacies in the Middle East and India. The company has a presence in all Gulf countries. The UAE has the largest presence of its medical facilities.

"In Oman and Qatar we started operations 10 years ago. Saudi Arabia operations were launched more than two years ago while Kuwait and Bahrain were opened just one year ago" he said.

"Currently we have different level of facilities in different countries" he said adding: "We are the only company which provides hospitals clinics and pharmacies."

The company hires 1500 to 2000 employees every year. "Since six new hospitals are coming up in the GCC and others in India we will need more staff" he explained. The group currently has more than 14000 employees including 1500 doctors.

India facilities

In addition to Gulf operations Aster DM Healthcare has a huge presence in India. The company has three hospitals in Kerala two in Maharashtra and two in Telangana. It is looking at a total of 2700 beds in India across facilities by the end of 2016.

"Our large focus is on India because of the requirement. Considering the large population there is a gap between supply and demand. In the next five years our total number of beds will increase exponentially in India" he added.

This year the company will commission a 500-bed hospital in Bengaluru Aster CMI besides adding to its large facilities Aster Medcity in Kochi and Aster MIMS in Kozhikode.

Acquisition

Dr Moopen said acquisition is one of the strategies used by the company for growth. "We are looking at acquisition of any hospital pharmacy and clinics. If there is any right-sized assets we will be looking at acquisition" he explained.

Recently Aster had acquired a majority stake in Sanad Hospital in Saudi Arabia. It is one of the largest healthcare acquisitions in West Asia.

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