Fortis Healthcare is planning to list its diagnostic chain Super Religare Labs (SRL) in the next calender year, said Fortis Healthcare?s Malvinder Singh. SRL had acquired the diagnostics business of Piramal Healthcare for Rs 600 crore in April-June. Fortis Healthcare shares spurted 2.4% on the BSE on Wednesday to close at Rs 156.20.
Meanwhile, Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh are upbeat on the opportunities in Asian healthcare.
On Wednesday, at the launch of the Fortis Cancer Institute at the firms’ Mulund facility, Fortis Healthcare’s chairman Malvinder Singh said the company will continue to look for greenfield expansion as well as acquisitions in the healthcare space on a pan-Asia basis as the opportunities are plenty in the region. The company will also get itself listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange. However, he refused to give any time frame for the listing.
The company is currently focusing on healthcare and financial services businesses. ?For Fortis, the priorities are both its businesses of healthcare and financial services,? said Singh, who sold the Parkway stake to pocket around Rs 400 crore late July. The Singhs had also sold their entire holding in India’s largest firm Ranbaxy Laboratories to Japan’s Daiichi Sankyo for close to Rs 10,000 crore in June 2008. However, when asked if the company would explore new business opportunities outside healthcare and financial services owing to its strong financial position, Singh said, ?At this point, these are the two businesses we would focus on.?
The institute at Mulund offers comprehensive customised cancer treatment with consultants across medical, surgical and radiation oncology, backed by the latest in cancer technology. Shivinder Singh, managing director, Fortis Healthcare, said the company, which has 48 hospitals in its fold, would set up four to five more such centres in different parts of the country. ?These centres would work as regional hubs in diagnosis and treatment,? he added.
Fortis Cancer Institute also announced a ?Fortis Lisa Ray Award for Conquering Cancer.? This award would be given to that cancer survivor who has conquered cancer with confidence and someone who did not let the disease affect his/her zest for living.
?Cancer is an emerging and a major public health issue in our country. The age standardised incidence rates in men is 81.8 to 122.8 per 100,000 population, whereas in females it is 93.5 to 137.7,? said Boman Dhabar, consultant medical oncologist at Fortis Cancer Institute.