DM Healthcare eyes $100m India acquisitions

Dubai-based DM Healthcare is considering buying two hospitals in southern India for about US$100m, as it seeks to expand its operations in the country, the Business Standard reported.

The company, which recently raised US$100m investment from private equity firm Olympus Capital Asia, may conclude the first deal in the first quarter, the newspaper reported. DM Healthcare, which operates private hospitals and clinics across the GCC and in southern India, has close to 1,000 beds in India and aims to increase it to 4,000 in by 2015.

DM Healthcare, is looking at an initial public offering in the next two or three years on the London Stock Exchange, a bourse in the UAE or one in Mumbai, the company’s chairman Azad Moopen told Arabian Business in December.

DM Healthcare's US$300m expansion across the GCC includes a 100-bed multispecialty hospital in both Dubai and Sharjah in the UAE, due for completion in 2013 and 2014. Other investments include two greenfield sites and three acquisitions in Saudi Arabia over the next five years and a 75-bed facility in Qatar due to open in 2014.

DM Healthcare will also add 100 beds to its existing 240-bed general hospital in Riyadh. 

The company plans to hire 10,000 new employees over the next five years, taking DM Healthcare’s total headcount to more than 15,000.

DM Healthcare is also looking at opportunities in the US, Europe, Egypt and Nigeria, which would mainly target medical tourism. Any potential deals in those countries would take place by 2017 at the earliest.