New Delhi Fortis is going to team up with DLF to form a 74:26 joint venture to set up state-of-the-art hospitals across the country. Shivender Singh, MD, Fortis, said the company is planning to set up hospitals ranging from 250 to 400 beds with an investment of about Rs 200 crore. The investments will be done in two phases over two decades, he added.
On medical staff's resignation, Shivender says, the company is pretty confident of the fact that it has a lot of in-house talent and can use that to further the growth of Escorts Hospital. He declines any plan to raise cash from the market at least for the next three years.
Excerpts from CNBC - TV18’s exclusive interview with Shivinder Singh:
Q: Lay out the contours if you could for this DLF JV. What exactly you are going to roll out and how much investment it would entail on your part?
A: It has been mentioned already that it is a 74:26 JV between us and DLF. We are looking at setting up hospitals in a lot of the townships of DLF over a period of the next decade. Broadly speaking, we are looking at hospitals ranging from 250 to 400 beds with the investments of about Rs 200 crore for the full stage of the product. So we are talking about a large investment, but it is really going to come staggered over maybe two phases over two decades.
I don’t think the numbers are really that critical right now. We are talking about the first phase to be about in the next 5-7 years, which will have about 8-12 hospitals. A lot of the finer details will come through after the JV is put together. The idea is to look at areas, which are ready to take on large facilities first and then take on to other markets in future.
Q: When will the first hospital be rolled out?
A: Let us wait for the inking of the joint venture and putting the teams together. We can talk about specific details probably after that only.
Q: Have you identified the first few cities where you want to set up base? Do you have any plans of increasing the number of hospitals in Delhi itself?
A: We are talking about the specifics as of now. We have not frozen anything. It is a little premature to say anything before the inking of the deal. Once that happens, we will able to provide details on the first few facilities and the future plans.
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Q: Have you identified a successive for the Escorts Hospital at this point?
A: We just announced that in the recently announced press conference.
We have made a full team to take forward the organisation. We have the Executive Director for Cardiac Science, Dr Claire, who is an old hand in Escorts from the beginning and a very well reputed cardiologist known both nationally and internationally.
We have a team of Dr Karlekar, Dr Mishra, Dr Iyer, Dr. Radha, Dr Savitri and lots of very senior people who have been with the institution and are taking leadership positions. We are pretty confident of the fact that we have a lot of in-house talent and we can use that to further the growth of this institution.
Q: What was the final tally of the doctors who left with Dr Naresh Trehan?
A: There are 2-3 things in that context I would like to say. Firstly, we have about 2% of the total staff strength that have gone. Secondly, there are very few senior doctors who have gone; most of them who left are junior doctors and a lot of support staff including people in the F&B department and materials and house keeping. The point is that most of them are just fan followers and have been here only because of an individual more than the institution.
And, thirdly we don’t see any reason why we need to replace anyone. These are basically people who are there for an individual who largely would contribute to fat in the organisation. So, we are pretty happy about the fact that it is a natural attrition that has helped clear out our fat and we will probably be leaner going forward.
Q: A word on the money that you will put into this JV. Will you need to raise any further cash, will you use the IPO proceeds or do you have enough cash reserves for it?
A: As we had mentioned in the IPO details for the next three years, we do not see any reason for raising any more cash from the market. We have enough leverage available as also cash reserves which will be used in future. As the JV goes forward and more concrete plans get developed, we will look at what needs to be done at that point of time.
Source:moneycontrol.com
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