MPIC's hospital group to fasttrack expansion

MANILA, Philippines - The hospitals group of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) will fasttrack its expansion from the current five hospitals to 15 within the next three years, faster than the original 10-year timetable.

MPIC hospitals group president Augusto Palisoc Jr. said chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan has instructed them to acquire or manage 10 more hospitals within three years.

Palisoc said the five hospitals they now operate took about three years to acquire.

A big number of the 10 new hospitals will be in Luzon, he added.

As this developed, MPIC president Jose Ma. Lim revealed that they plan to acquire one or two more hospitals this year.

Currently, MPIC’s hospitals group includes Makati Medical Center, Cardinal Santos Medical Center, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, all in Metro Manila, and Riverside Medical Center in Bacolod and Davao Doctors Hospital in Davao.

Lim said that with an increased focus on marketing improved services, it is expected that investments in equipment and personnel will begin to add to the hospital group’s bottomline in 2011.

Total core income of the hospital group for 2010 was at P474 million, down 10 percent from 2009, reflecting weak performances by the nursing schools of Riverside, Davao Doctors and MMC on declining enrollment.

Higher expenses from ongoing investments in additional personnel, security, equipment and building mainly at MMC, reduced patient admissions from an unusually high level in 2009 due to the H1N1 virus, and loss of tax deductions on senior citizens’ discounts per new government regulations also affected bottomline, Lim explained.

The hospitals group accounts for about three percent of MPIC’s income, with about 46 percent coming from Maynilad, 27 percent from Meralco/Beacon, and 24 percent from the tollways group.

Lim said moving forward, the hospitals group will continue to pursue acquisitions towards the goal of 3,000 beds, 15 hospitals, P10 billion in revenues, and P1 billion in core income.

About P3.5 billion will be spent in the next couple of years, even as MPIC is in talks with larger schools to fasttrack offerings to make them more profitable, he added.