Aster Healthcare to invest Rs 1,000 crores

Mumbai: The Kochi-based Aster DM Healthcare, one of the few publicly traded hospital chains in the country, is planning to add over 2,000 beds at an investment of over Rs 1,000 crore in the next two to three years in five new properties outside Kerala.

The hospital chain, which began in Dubai as a drug distributor in 1987, will add one more facility each in Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai and two more

in Andhra.

The chain currently operates six hospitals in the country with 4,500 beds, of which 3,000 beds are in Kerala and the rest in three other states. It also operates 1,000 beds across six hospitals in the Gulf which is its cash-cow with over 70 per cent revenue flow, spanning all GCC countries.

"We are investing over Rs 1,000 crore to add over 2,000 beds to our existing 4,500 beds in the next two-three years. These hospitals will be on an asset-light model, where we will be operating and managing the facility.

Chennai will have the first of these new hospitals at an investment of over Rs 550 crore," Aster DM Healthcare founder and chairman Azad Moopen told in an interaction.

Aster already runs two facilities with 500 beds in Bengaluru, one each in Vijayawada and Guntur in Andhra and a 300-bed facility in Kolhapur in southern Maharashtra.