India?s largest healthcare group, Apollo Hospitals, has ruled out selling its stake in the seven-year-old Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals, a 50-50 joint venture with Parkway Health of Singapore. Interestingly, Kolkata-based, 425-bed Apollo Gleneagles has now come under Fortis following its acquisition of 24% stake in Parkway Holdings, a few days back.
?Apollo Hospitals is ready to work with Fortis, but is also ready to acquire the Parkway stake if the latter comes forward to sell the same in the Kolkata venture,? said Prathap C Reddy, chairman, Apollo Hospitals group.
In an exclusive interaction with FE here on Monday over the phone, Reddy said: ?We are happy to see that an Indian hospital company making an overseas acquisition. But our focus is different. It is a 360 degree approach and we will grow from our strength to strength.?
In response to a question on the possible clash of interests, Reddy said: ?We don?t see any problem working with Fortis. We (also) equally rule out that Apollo will sell its stake in the venture because we have grown the hospital from scratch to the current level. We have put in huge efforts to see that Apollo Gleneagles serve not only the eastern region, north-eastern region and neighbouring places but also people from neighbouring countries.?
After CMC of Vellore (Tamil Nadu), Apollo has the second largest footprint in the eastern region of the country. ?West Bengal in general and Kolkata in particular are our major thrust areas and we are committed to serve the people of this region with our quality services in a most cost-competitive manner?, Reddy maintained.
Reiterating his commitment to the Indian healthcare system, Reddy said his group considers itself more than a hospital group. He said it is a healthcare service provider. ?We have healthcare, education, training, IT, health insurance, pharmacies, clinical research divisions, global tie-ups and everything under one roof. There is a huge opportunity for us to grow organically as well as inorganically and we continue to grow well.?
It may be recalled that in 2002, Apollo had replaced the Duncan group in the Duncan Gleneagles Hospitals, when the latter sold its stake to Apollo. Apollo then in association with Parkway spruced up the hospital to a 325-bed facility two years ago and later increased the number to 425 with an investment that touched ?a few hundred crores of rupees?, he maintained.
Apollo Gleneagles is the only hospital in eastern India to be accredited with Joint Commission International accreditation, the international benchmark for quality. It is also the only hospital to receive NABL certification in six separate categories, namely clinical biochemistry, clinical pathology, haematology & immunohaematology, microbiology & serology, histopathology & cytopathology.
Apollo Hospitals, which started off in1983 in Chennai with one hospital, has grown in to 49-hospital group spread across the country and has a presence in Mauritius and Dhaka. The group currently has 8,500 bed in its network and plans to grow it to 10,000 by next fiscal by setting up new ones and through acquisitions.