IHH Healthcare envisions ‘huge growth’ in demand for private hospitals in China
Malaysia’s IHH Healthcare is slated to open the 450-bed Gleneagles Shanghai Hospital in 2020, tapping the city’s growing wealth and bolstering its ambition to become a world-class medical destination
Malaysian hospital operator IHH Healthcare, an investor in Hong Kong’s private Gleneagles Hospital, will take a proactive approach to further expand its presence in mainland China, seeking to tap the growing appetite for private health care among the rising middle class.
Tan See Leng, chief executive of IHH, said the company would look for opportunities across the mainland, focusing on the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, Bohai Bay and central and western parts of China, buoyed by Beijing’s ambitions to improve health care services.
“We have enough reserves to continue to fund our expansions in China,” Tan told reporters during a weekend press conference in Shanghai. “We believe this is a huge growth market.”
He wouldn’t disclose the size of the potential investments in China, but added that IHH would consider merging with existing operators or buying them outright to reinforce its foray into the market.
China will become IHH’s fifth market after Malaysia, Singapore, Turkey and India, Tan said.
He said the company aims to become a market leader in China’s foreign-funded private hospital sector, noting that the company has broken ground on a 1.36 billion yuan (US$200.09 million) hospital in Hongqiao area, Shanghai.