Metro Pac health unit eyeing more hospitals

TOKYO: Metro Pacific Health Corp. (MPH), an affiliate of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC), is looking to expand its hospital portfolio to 40 before the end of 2025.

In a media briefing on Friday, Chaye Cabal-Revilla, MPIC chief finance, risk and sustainability officer, said that 17 hospitals were being targeted for acquisition to boost the current portfolio of 23.

«MVP's (MPIC Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan) target is 40 hospitals in the next two years,» she said.

Cabal-Revilla added that MPH was now looking to purchase smaller hospitals, saying «the logic there is that if it's bigger, it will take us a bit longer to do due diligence.»

«If it's smaller, it is faster.»

Two hospitals are currently in the acquisition pipeline and could be purchased before the end of 2023 or early next year.

«We have acquired most of the big ones, so we are now targeting smaller hospitals, regionals… So we are looking at seven next year and eight in 2025,» Cabal-Revilla said.

The 40-hospital portfolio targeted for end-2025 will all be brownfield investments, but the group remains open to the possibility of building its own facilities.

«There are certain cases also in some areas that have no hospitals, and we have to be approaching those areas in an innovative way,» Cabal-Revilla said.

Sustainability will be a major consideration for a greenfield project, she added.

«If we ever do a greenfield [project]… it's going to be on a small or medium-sized case only,» Cabal-Revilla continued.

Last month, MPH acquired a majority stake in Antipolo Doctors Inc., the owner and operator of Antipolo Doctors Hospital.

It also completed the acquisition of nearly 61 percent of Lucena United Doctors Inc., which owns and operates the Lucena United Doctors Hospital and Medical Center.

Following the latest acquisitions, MPH currently oversees 23 hospitals in addition to 26 outpatient care centers, two allied health colleges and the centralized Medi Linx Laboratory.

The group's hospitals include the Makati Medical Center, Asian Hospital and Medical Center, Cardinal Santos Medical Center, Riverside Medical Center and the Davao Doctors Hospital.