Malaysia's IHH Healthcare acquires 51% in Hyderabad’s Continental Hospitals for Rs282 cr

Malaysia's IHH Healthcare Bhd, Asia's largest hospital operator, yesterday acquired a 51-per cent stake in Continental Hospitals for Rs282 crore ($45.4 million), valuing the Hyderabad-based super specialty hospital at around Rs550 crore.

The deal comes one week after Singapore's regulator blocked IHH's plan to buy diagnostics services provider RadLink-Asia Pte Ltd from Fortis Healthcare for $109 million over competition concerns.

The acquisition was carried out through IHH's Singapore-based hospital unit Parkway Holdings, which also holds a 13 per cent stake in India's largest hospital chain, Apollo Hospitals.

Parkway Hospitals Singapore is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Parkway Pantai Ltd, which in turn is a subsidiary of IHH.

"Our partnership with Apollo is strategic and long term, but we are also seeing how we can get a national footprint of picking up strategic assets which fit with our areas of strength which are tertiary and quaternary care," said Ramesh Krishnan, head of Middle East, South Asia operations for Parkway Pantai.

Established in 2013 by Dr. Guru N Reddy, Continental Hospital is a 750-bed super specialty hospital.