MVP Group eyes QualiMed

QUALIMED hospital

Businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan-led Metro Pacific group is interested to take over a chain of hospitals and clinics under the healthcare brand QualiMed now being pitched by the Ayala and Mercado groups to prospective new investors.

If a deal would be made, then this could mark the single biggest consolidation of healthcare networks in the country.

It could also be the biggest acquisition of Metro Pacific Hospital Holdings Inc. (MPHHI), cementing its position as the leading healthcare network operator in the country.

However, there are other groups which may bid for the Qualimed business, other sources said.

Mount Grace, the hospital arm of homegrown pharmaceutical giant Unilab, for instance, has been MPHHI’s key rival in recent hospital buyout deals.

Industry sources said the Ayala Land Inc. and Mercado groups were rethinking their partnership in the healthcare business four years after teaming up to introduce the QualiMed Health Network.

Three sources from the Ayala group confirmed that talks had been initiated to sell the business, with one source noting that the Mercado group was “leading the discussions” on the prospective divestment.

While having a hospital in its large-scale mixed-use estates was the primary reason for Ayala Land’s decision to invest in the hospital business, operating a hospital is not deemed part of its core business.

Recently, the group also signed a deal to sell its interest in another noncore business, the convenience store network under the FamilyMart brand.

Asked about this matter, Jose Ma. Lim, president of MPHHI’s parent conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corp., said his group had been approached to discuss a potential investment in QualiMed.

“We’ll be interested,” he told Inquirer in a chance interview.

“Their business model is to put hospitals in new developments, which means these are start-ups so it’s difficult to make money,” Lim said. “Actually, we are probably the best candidate to make it work because we already have the critical mass with our 14 hospitals.”

For his part, MPPHI president Augie Palisoc said: “Except for the Batangas hospital and the outpatient facility at PGH (Philippine General Hospital), their facilities are mostly greenfield clinics and hospitals, which will suffer years of losses before they develop any critical mass, so any buyer will necessarily have to make a very long term bet on this company.”

Since investing in Makati Medical Center a decade ago, MPHHI now has a combined capacity of close to 3,000 beds in its chain of 14 hospitals across the country.

The QualiMed Health Network, meanwhile, has four operating hospitals with a combined capacity of 456 beds plus around seven other outpatient facilities around the country.

Mercado General Hospital Inc. (MGHI) was established in Tanauan, Batangas in 1957.

The founder, Dr. Daniel Mercado, came back to his hometown after finishing his internship at the Baltimore Casualty Hospital in Washington, D.C.

From a 12-bed clinic, the first hospital in Batangas has become a 145-bed tertiary hospital.

In June, 2013, the majority shareholders of MGHI signed an agreement with Ayala Land for the latter to acquire WhiteKnight Holdings Inc. (WHI), a holding company of the majority shareholders. WHI then owned a 33-percent ownership interest in MGHI. The deal was consummated in November 2013, making MGHI a part of the Ayala group of companies.

QualiMed was launched in February 2014 with the opening of the QualiMed Clinic in TriNoma Mall in Quezon City, followed by the opening of QualiMed Surgery Center in Fairview Terraces also in Quezon City and the opening of 104-bed QualiMed Hospital in Mandurriao, Iloilo and the QualiMed Clinic in Makati in the same year.

The 105-bed QualiMed General Hospital was opened last year at Altaraza Town Center in Bulacan while early this year, the 102-bed

QualiMed Hospital in Sta. Rosa, Nuvali was inaugurated. Also in the pipeline is

QualiMed’s flagship hospital, which will open in 2020 in Cloverleaf, Balintawak.

MGHI also founded the DMMC Institute of Health Sciences, a tertiary healthcare education institution in Tanauan City, Batangas that also houses the Newborn Screening Reference Center for Southern Luzon.

MPHHI’s healthcare portfolio, on the other hand, includes two healthcare colleges, Davao Doctors College and Riverside College in Bacolod, three primary care clinics, Megaclinic in SM Megamall Ortigas and TopHealth in SM San Lazaro, and a newly built cancer center in a joint venture with Lipa Medix in Batangas.