Apollo arm to invest ~500 cr in expansion
Apollo Health and Lifestyle Limited (AHLL) will invest ~500 crore in the next five years to expand its core businesses across the country. It is creating innovative models of clinics to provide primary health care in alternative ways by using telemedicine and medical services on mobile app under customised treatment platforms.
The subsidiary of Apollo Hospitals Enterprise has five primary care formats — Apollo Clinics, Apollo Sugar, Apollo Diagnostics, Apollo White and Apollo Dialysis. It has rapid expansion plans to increase the number of multi-speciality clinics and diabetes clinics to 150 each in the coming three years from 72 and 42 respectively.
According to AHLL Chief Executive Officer Neeraj Garg, the company may invest ~2-2.5 crore to set up a multi-speciality clinic, and ~1.5-2 crore for a standalone diabetes clinic in leased premises.
Apollo Sugar is also partnering with other private hospitals, where the investment would be ~25-50 lakh. It has already tied up with one hospital in Vijayawada, and is going to add 10 more hospitals in southern and western parts of the country within one year.
AHLL is planning to spread Apollo Diagnostics centres to northern and western parts over the next three years. The number of centres has gone up from 18 to 42 in the last year, and it will further grow to 70 by the end of next year by expanding into West Bengal, Odisha, Assam and other states.
The Hyderabad-based company is going to open Apollo Cradle — a women and children hospital along with a fertility clinic — in Amritsar next month with an investment of ~20 crore. So far, there are a dozen centres in five cities. It is planning to have 20 hospitals in specific cities by 2020.
Last December, AHLL has raised around ~450 crore from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) by selling 29 per cent stake in the company. “With these funds, we can meet our expansion needs for the next two-three years. We may think about further fund raising only after three years,” Garg said.
AHLL has 72 Apollo White dental hospitals, 12 Apollo Spectra surgical hospitals and six Apollo Dialysis centres in India. The company is looking for collaboration with the government to expand dialysis centres through the public-private participation model, according to Garg. AHLL is expecting to reach break-even in 12-24 months.