MPIC eyes up to 4 hospitals outside Metro Manila

Infrastructure holding firm Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) is setting its sights on three or four hospitals outside Metro Manila to expand its growing healthcare operations.

MPIC president Jose Ma. Lim said the group’s takeover targets are mid-sized hospitals located in the provinces.

Lim said the company is still in investment mode as it aims to further grow its footprint in the healthcare sector.

The group plans to ramp up its hospital bed capacity to 5,000 from the current 3,200, acquire existing healthcare institutions and build cancer centers and centralized laboratories across the country.

Earlier reports said the group was planning to build 30 primary care clinics, 10 cancer centers and five centralized laboratory testing hubs in key cities.

With interests in water and electricity distribution and toll road development, MPIC entered the healthcare space in 2007 with the purchase of a 32.5 percent stake in Medical Doctors Inc., the owner and operator of Makati Medical Center.

Apart from MakatiMed, the other hospitals under the group’s portfolio include Asian Hospital, Cardinal Santos Medical Center, Manila Doctors Hospital, De Los Santos Medical Center, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Delgado Hospital, Marikina Valley Medical Center, Davao Doctors Hospital, Riverside Medical Center in Bacolod, Central Luzon Doctors’ Hospital in Tarlac, West Metro Medical Center in Zamboanga, St. Elizabeth Hospital in General Santos City, and Sacred Heart Hospital in Malolos, Bulacan.

MPIC’s hospital business booked a net income of P1.05 billion in the first half, up 13 percent year-on-year on the back of a 15 percent jump in revenues to P12.2 billion.