Sime Darby Plans To Expand Healthcare Business In Indonesia

KUALA LUMPUR (Malaysia), March 20 (Bernama) -- Sime Darby Bhd plans to expand its healthcare business in Indonesia in synch with its five-year strategic plan to grow the business in Malaysia and the Asean region. Its chief executive officer, Mohd Bakke Salleh said the group was currently focusing on Jakarta and had been discussing with a few players in the Indonesian market with regards to its plan. "We are looking at a few countries in the Asean region to add on hospitals or to take up equity stake in existing hospitals. We want to add on more hospitals by 2016 as stated in our five-year strategic blueprint that we rolled out last year." For their plan in Jakarta, he said the group was open to both options. "For the time being, it is difficult to commit anything, because it’s work in progress," he told in a press conference here after the official opening of Sime Darby Medical Centre Ara Damansara, here on Tuesday. The medical centre was opened by the Sultan of Selangor state, Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah Alhaj. "It is important to have a significant stake and at the same time to be an active partner. A significant stake does not necessarily link to having more than 50 per cent. It could be less than that and when it comes to day-to-day management, we have an active role and it must be based on other criteria as well," Mohd Bakke said. On the group's five-year strategic blueprint, he said it was progressing well. "So far so good, in terms of our strategic blueprint milestone. We said that we would have additional two hospitals operating next year, today we have one and early next year we have another one," he said. The group's other hospitals are Sime Darby Medical Centre Subang Jaya and Sime Darby Specialist Centre Megah. Sime Darby Medical Centre Parkcity will be opened next year. Mohd Bakke said Sime Darby was now actively looking for opportunities in other parts of the Klang Valley as well as other locations in Malaysia for its next hospital. He also said that the newly launched Sime Darby Medical Centre Ara Damansara, which was opened in January this year, currently has 73 beds and the number would be scaled up to 220 beds by 2016. According to him, the healthcare business in Selangor was growing fast and the demand from local patients very good. He said the Sime Darby Medical Centre Ara Damansara was not targetting foreign patients currently but expected the number of its international patients to increase to about 20 per cent from the present five per cent over the next four years. Built at a cost of RM240 million (US$78.02 million), the country’s first stand-alone medical centre which focuses on heart, brain, spine and joints cases will eventually have 220 beds, 30 clinic suites, five operating theatres and two cardiovascular laboratories. It will also have a fully-equipped, rehabilitation facility which includes neuro-spinal rehabilitation (stroke and spinal injuries), paediatric therapy, musculoskeletal rehabilitation, occupational therapy, hydrotherapy and speech therapy. Mohd Bakke said the cost would increase from the RM240 million (US$78.02 million) to RM300 million (US$97.5 million) when the number of its hospital beds increases to 220 from the present 73 beds. He also said that Sime Darby sees higher contribution from its healthcare division to the group's profit with the opening of the new hospital. Mohd Bakke also said that Sime Darby does not have any plan to list its healthcare unit for the time being. -- BERNAMA