MVP buys stake in Manila Doctors

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 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 was founded in 1956 by a group of doctors and has expanded over the years under the auspices of tycoon 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 Augie Palisoc Jr. said in a statement issued yesterday.

MMSI chair and president Antonio Abacan Jr. said that working with the biggest private hospital group in the country would further improve the hospital’s services.

Manila Doctors embarked last year on a P1.2-billion expansion program with the construction of an 18-storey building that will provide more diagnostic services, 200 patient rooms, 64 doctors’ clinics and 160 parking slots.

The investment by Metro Pacific is subject to a due-diligence review and the execution of definitive agreements and is expected to be concluded before yearend.

Upon completion, Metro Pacific will have under its wings 10 local hospitals with a total capacity of around 2,600 beds. The other hospitals 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.