TPG Capital back in Malaysian healthcare scene

KUALA LUMPUR: US-based private equity (PE) fund TPG Capital Asia is back in the Malaysian healthcare scene with a stake in Cardiac Vascular Sentral Kuala Lumpur (CVSKL).

CVSKL is a 60-bedded RM270mil private hospital specialising in heart treatment. It is located in the KL Sentral business district that was first opened in November 2017.

TPG, which owns the stake in CVSKL through TE Asia Healthcare, was an investor once in Parkway Pantai Ltd, which is now owned by Khazanah Nasional Bhd-backed IHH Healthcare Bhd.

“CVSKL is part and parcel of what we are investing via a platform called TE Asia Healthcare Partners.

“The business model of TE Asia Healthcare is to look at special centres around South-East Asia and East Asia,” CVSKL director Ganen Sarvananthan said at a briefing.

He said the fund’s first centre is in Hong Kong, which is now celebrating its third anniversary.

“We have partnered with the specialists in Hong Kong – the oncologists – to establish a hub for oncology. The location is very central.

“So, similarly, we have worked very hard to find a site here. Malaysian Resources Corp Bhd actually agreed to sell us this building to convert it into CVSKL,” he added.

Ganen said the fund would be on the lookout via TE Asia Healthcare for other specialist centres.

“If we can do this right, then when other doctors see it, they may choose to work with us. The business model is to work in partnership with the specialists,” he said.

Ganen, who has previously served as head of investment at Khazanah, said the PE firm would soon announce another venture in Malaysia.

A statement by CVSKL said that TPG was looking to build a regional network of specialised medical specialities across Asia.

Ganen, meanwhile, declined to reveal how much TPG owned in CVSKL, but said that the business arrangement for the heart specialist centre was through a prof- it-sharing model.

“The economic ownership, which means what is actually there, works where the doctors of CVSKL own about half of the equity.

“So, the other half is effectively TPG and a couple of other financial investors,” he said.

TPG is a global alternative asset firm that was founded in 1992. It has about US$84bil worth of assets under management now.

Meanwhile, TE Asia Healthcare is a private healthcare investment and operations platform that was established in 2014.

TE Asia Healthcare invests in a portfolio of healthcare assets in the Asia-Pacific and is mainly focused on specialist oncology and cardiac centres.