Conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corp. said Thursday its hospital unit will acquire a 20-percent stake in Manila Doctors Hospital along United Nations Ave. in Ermita, Manila from the group of tycoon George Ty.
Metro Pacific said in a disclosure to the stock exchange its hospital arm Metro Pacific Hospital Holdings Inc. signed a memorandum of understanding to acquire a 20-percent equity stake in Manila Medical Services Inc., the company that owns and operates Manila Doctors.
Metro Pacific did not disclose the value of the transaction.
Manila Doctors is a 300-bed tertiary hospital that was established in 1956 by a group of pioneering doctors. It grew under the leadership of the Ty group through an investment by Metrobank Foundation Inc. in 1979.
“We are grateful to Mr. Ty for welcoming us as a partner in their very well respected Manila Doctors Hospital with such a long history of delivering quality healthcare in the city of Manila,” MPHHI president and chief executive Augusto Palisoc Jr. said.
MMSI chairman and president Antonio Abacan Jr. said the entry of MPHHI would help improve the services of Manila Doctors.
“While Manila Doctors Hospital is currently doing very well, we are sure that working with the largest private hospital group in the country will further improve our services, especially now that we are in the middle of an expansion with the near completion of a new medical tower,” Abacan said.
MDH embarked on a P1.2-billion expansion program in 2014, with the construction of a new 18-story building that would provide more diagnostic services, 200 additional patient rooms, 64 more doctors’ clinics and 160 more parking slots.
The transaction is subject to a satisfactory due diligence review and the execution of definitive agreements, and is expected to be concluded before the year end.
Metro Pacific said the deal, once completed, would enable it move another step forward in expanding its nationwide chain of premier private hospitals to 10 throughout the country with a total capacity of 2,600 beds.
The other hospitals in the 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 recently West Metro Medical Center in Zamboanga.