The Kochi-based Aster DM Healthcare, 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.
“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,” Azad Moopen, Founder and Chairman, Aster DM Healthcare shared.
Aster already runs two facilities with 500 beds in Bengaluru, one each in Vijayawada and Gutur in Andhra and a 300-bed facility in Kohlapur in southern Maharashtra. While Dr Moopen and his family own 38 per cent, Aster counts PE majors Olympus Capital which owns around 23 per cent and True North which had held 10.4 per cent but had sold 7 per cent in June as its investors. The 500-beds Chennai facility will be operational over the next 30 months, Moopen said, adding the Rs 1,000-crore capex plan does not include the 500-beds upcoming facility in the Kerala capital Thiruvananthapuram.
It can be noted that Aster’s largest facility in Kochi with 670 beds was in headlines recently after it successfully treated a youth for the deadly Nipah virus. The patient was wheeled in early June with the symptoms of the deadly virus, which had taken 18 lives last year in the state. After being treated for 53 days, the patient walked home on July 23 and thanks to this hospital, the state didn’t report any other Nipah case this year.
