Nithya Subramanian

New Delhi , June 8

FORTIS Healthcare Ltd, a Ranbaxy promoter group company, is planning to go national and set up hospitals across the country.

This is a slight shift from its earlier plan of dominating the north India market. Speaking to Business Line, Mr Harpal Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, Fortis said, "Earlier we were trying to create a platform for ourselves and therefore did not look at other regions of the country. But now that we have established ourselves here, we are evaluating proposals for starting operations in other places."

He said that the company would enhance its presence by buying out an existing facility or starting a greenfield project, entering into partnerships or using the franchising route. He was, however, not willing to give details of the new locations.

Fortis is also in the process of putting in place smaller facilities which would act as feeders to the large super-speciality hospitals. "We are using the hub and spoke strategy. While the hubs will be the large multi-speciality hospitals, the spokes could be a small facility with diagnostics, consultation and pharmacy, larger city centres, small hospitals with 50 or 140 beds," Mr Singh added.

The company aims to be present in 25 to 30 locations by 2009, of which at least 10 would be multi-speciality hospitals. Currently, four hospitals in Mohali, Noida, Delhi and Amritsar are operational.

The company envisages an investment of Rs 1,100 crore by 2008. While most of the money will be raised internally, Fortis is being wooed by private equity funds. "As of now, we are not looking at placing shares with any fund," Mr Singh added.

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