Metro Pacific Hospital Holdings Inc., the hospital unit of Metro Pacific Investments Corp., said it signed an agreement with Southwestern University for a possible joint venture in the modernization of a 100-bed training hospital in Cebu province.
Metro Pacific Hospital president and chief executive Augusto Palisoc Jr. said the company was approached by Phinma Group, which recently acquired a majority stake in SWU, to help with the development of a master plan and a five-year business program for Sacred Heart Hospital.
The hospital under the agreement will undergo corporate restructuring that will give Metro Pacific Hospital the option to invest a majority stake in the hospital.
SWU owns and operates the hospital.
Palisoc said Metro Pacific Hospital had until the end of March 2016 to study and make an investment decision.
If Metro Pacific Hospital decides to invest in Sacred Heart Hospital, it will the first brown field project of the company.
“Until now we have always been investing in existing large hospitals. In this case this will be the first brown field project,” Palisoc said.
He said SWU had always been focused on school business and did not pay much attention on the hospital.
“The hospital is a bit old and lacking facilities,” Palisoc said.
Early this month, Metro Pacific Hospital announced it planned to acquire a 20-percent stake in George Ty-owned Manila Doctors Hospital located along United Nations Avenue in Ermita, Manila.
Manila Doctors is a 300-bed tertiary hospital that was founded in 1956 by a group of pioneering doctors and later expanded under the current leadership the Ty Group through an investment by Metrobank Foundation Inc. in 1979.
Hospitals currently under the Metro Pacific Hospital group are Makati Medical Center, Davao Doctors Hospital, Cardinal Santos Medical Center, Riverside Medical Center, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Asian Hospital, De Los Santos Medical Center, Central Luzon Doctors’ Hospital, and more recently West Metro Medical Center in Zamboanga.
The group also has a mall-based diagnostic center MegaClinic in SM MegaMall, and two healthcare colleges—Davao Doctors College and Riverside College in Bacolod City.