Metro Pacific buys Butuan hospital

Metro Pacific chair Manuel V. Pangilinan. INQUIRER file photo

The country’s leading hospital chain operator Metro Pacific Hospital Holdings Inc. (MPHHI) has signed a deal to acquire 100-room Manuel J. Santos Hospital in Butuan, expanding its footprint in Mindanao.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, parent conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corp. said that its hospital arm completed on Wednesday a share purchase agreement with the Santos, Vesagas, and Villareal families to acquire a minimum of 576,257 shares, representing at least 67 percent of Santos Clinic Inc. (SCI), owner and operator of MJSH.

The three families, all scions of founder Manuel Santos, collectively owned around 75 percent of SCI. MPHHI also offered to purchase the shares of other SCI shareholders for P563.77 per share.

MJSH is a level 2 hospital located along Montilla Boulevard corner National Highway in Butuan City. It was founded in 1933 by the late doctor Manuel Santos and his wife, the late Amparo Lopez, at the prodding of Santos’ brother, the late Cardinal Rufino J. Santos, the first Filipino priest to be elevated to Cardinal.

Incoming SCI president and chief executive officer Oslec Lopez said: “The 15th hospital in the MPHHI network is one of the most storied in our portfolio, having been established in 1933 in the equally historic city of Butuan. The late Cardinal Rufino Santos, the eponym of one of the premier hospitals in Metro Manila that we also operate, prodded his brother to put up a hospital in Agusan long before he became Cardinal. From then, the family of Dr. Santos saw to it that MJSH remained the go-to hospital of Northeastern Mindanao.”

“We are honored to be their partner in not just preserving its legacy but also in expanding its reach. This partnership is testament to Metro Pacific Hospital’s vision of providing quality healthcare nationwide as we now cover the North, East, West and South of Mindanao while we continue to look for partners that share our vision,” he added.

“We are honored to be their partner in not just preserving its legacy but also in expanding its reach. This partnership is testament to Metro Pacific Hospital’s vision of providing quality healthcare nationwide as we now cover the North, East, West and South of Mindanao while we continue to look for partners that share our vision,” added Lopez, who is also MPHHI’s business development head for Mindanao.

Terence Vesagas, a representative of the partner families who is also the incoming chief operating officer, said the partner families wanted to elevate further the healthcare services provided by MJSH through this partnership with the Metro Pacific Hospital Group.

“We chose a partner that we know preserves and enhances the legacy of the hospitals in its portfolio. We appreciate their thrust to always work with local stakeholders, understanding that a hospital will always be a local community’s anchor service. We look forward to increasing our footprint in Northeastern Mindanao and further continuing the mission of my late grandfather,” he said.

MPHHI president and chief executive officer Augusto Palisoc Jr. thanked the families for their continued active participation in both the board and management of SCI. With Lopez and Vesagas leading the management team, Palisoc said that “together with MJSH’s excellent doctors and staff, Butuan, Agusan and its surrounding communities will continue to have access to the best and most complete array of healthcare services.”

The 14 other hospitals in MPHHI’s portfolio are: Makati Medical Center, Asian Hospital, Cardinal Santos Medical Center, Manila Doctors Hospital, De Los Santos Medical Center, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Marikina Valley Medical Center, Jesus Delgado Memorial Hospital, Davao Doctors Hospital, Riverside Medical Center in Bacolod, Central Luzon Doctors’ Hospital in Tarlac, West Metro Medical Center in Zamboanga, Sacred Heart Hospital in Malolos, Bulacan, and St. Elizabeth Hospital in General Santos City.

Parent conglomerate MPIC recently consummated a P35.3-billion deal to bring in a consortium led by American private equity firm KKR as a new strategic investor in MPHHI.