Villar invests in healthcare

The Villar group is venturing into the healthcare business to complement its nationwide property development footprint.

The group plans to build 14 hospitals with a combined capacity of 3,000 beds over the next five years under the brand “Vitacare,” beginning with what is envisioned to be the flagship hospital to be located in Vista City project in Daang Hari.

Businessman Manuel Villar Jr. told reporters at the sidelines of the recent opening of homebuilder store All Home in Quezon City that while the group was now present in 95 cities and municipalities across the country, there were some services lacking in these areas such as schools, hotels and hospitals.

As such, Villar said the group had decided to foray—through a privately held unit—into the hospital business using a portion of the group’s existing landbank.

For the first hospital that will be put up in Daang Hari, Villar said the group had entered into a partnership with the Unimed group of doctors. The doctors will manage the hospitals but the Villar group will have a majority stake in each of them.

It was also possible for the group to partner with different groups of doctors in various locations, Villar said.

The first hospital will be named Vitacare Unimed Hospital and Medical Center. Construction will start in May 2016 and the first phase of development, which will open 100 beds, is expected to be finished in two years.

The Villar group has earmarked P500 million for the first phase development of the hospital in Daang Hari. For the second phase of development, 300 new beds are expected to be added to the hospital.

“We want Vista City to have the biggest (hospital in the chain),” Villar said.

The rollout of the next hospitals was not expected to be difficult, Villar said, noting that the group had already identified the suitable landbank.

Asked for the rationale of building new hospitals from scratch, Villar said this would provide synergies with existing developments of Vista Land. “We can move very quickly and we can put in the land as equity. By 2016, we should already be launching the second and the third hospitals,” he said.

The strategy will be to find a group of doctors to team up with. “We provide the land and the market and the financial expertise and they will run the operations,” he said.

Other possible areas for expansion for the Villars’ upcoming Vitacare hospital chain are Parañaque (Lake Front), Bataan (Balanga), Bulacan (Malolos and San Jose del Monte), Cavite (General Trias and Tanza) , Batangas (Santo Tomas), Pampanga (San Fernando), Naga (Camarines sur), Cebu (Talisay), Iloilo (Boton), Davao and Cagayan de oro.