Apollo Hospitals to hike stake in Dhaka venture
By Our Corporate Bureau | 20 Jun 1999
The Apollo Hospitals group is seriously considering increasing its stake in its hospital venture in Bangladesh. The group has a 6 per cent stake in the proposed $40 million venture, Dhaka Apollo, and it wants to increase the stake to 18 per cent by investing Rs 10 crore. The group had earlier envisaged planning and commissioning the project and providing management expertise. It has already made an investment of Rs 5 crore in the project.
The Bangladesh government has offered additional duty exemptions and concessions for the project, which the group says has encouraged it to make additional investments. The project work is expected to start after the monsoon and will be completed in about 18 months.
Meanwhile, the group has plans to start a multi-speciality hospital in Ludhiana in Punjab. It has signed a collaboration agreement with a group of investors in Canada and Hong Kong for this purpose. The agreement provides for the group to construct and run the hospital for 30 years. The project cost is pegged at about Rs 100 crore.
The group is also in talks with the Sahara group of companies for a Rs 100 crore hospital project in Lucknow. The Ludhiana and Lucknow hospitals will be run on a franchise basis, and the Apollo group will charge royalty for the use of its name.
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