THE GROUP of businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan is buying into the 300-bed Manila Doctors Hospital in Ermita, Manila as a strategic partner of the Metrobank group, thus adding the 10th hospital in the growing chain healthcare portfolio of the Metro Pacific group.
Metrobank Foundation and Metro Pacific Hospital Holdings Inc. (MPHHI) – the hospital holding company of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. – signed a memorandum of understanding for MPHHI to acquire a 20 percent equity stake in Manila Medical Services Inc. (MMSI), the corporation that owns and operates Manila Doctors.
Manila Doctors, a pillar in the Philippine healthcare industry, was founded in 1956 by a group of pioneering doctors and has expanded over the years under the auspices of George S.K. Ty through an investment made by Metrobank Foundation 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 officer Augie Palisoc Jr. said in a press statement on Thursday.
For his part, MMSI chair and president Antonio Abacan Jr. said: “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.”
Manila Doctors embarked last year on a P1.2-billion expansion program with the construction of a new 18-storey building that would provide more diagnostic services, 200 additional patient rooms, 64 more doctors’ clinics, and 160 more parking slots. This investment by Metro Pacific is subject to a satisfactory due diligence review and the execution of definitive agreements and is expected to be concluded before year-end. Upon completion, Metro Pacific will have under its wings 10 local hospitals with a total capacity of around 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 more recently, West Metro Medical Center in Zamboanga.
The Metro Pacific group also has a mall-based diagnostic center MegaClinic in SM MegaMall, and two healthcare colleges: Davao Doctors College and Riverside College in Bacolod.