Singapore Pacific Healthcare eyes Mumbai

SINGAPORE: Singapore's Pacific Healthcare Holdings Ltd, a specialist healthcare provider, said on Thursday that it would open a hospital in Shanghai, China in October and a medical centre in Mumbai, India before year-end. 

Pacific Healthcare, which owns and runs about 40 clinics, a day surgery centre, a psychiatric hospital and two nursing homes, already has a medical centre in Hong Kong and in Hyderabad.

The hospital in Shanghai, which will take up five floors of a seven-storey building, is currently under renovation, William Chong, chief executive officer of Pacific Healthcare, said in an interview.

The firm is close to finalising a deal with its partners in India, he added. Analysts expect an average 26 percent rise in net profit at Pacific Healthcare this year.

"I would say these are fairly accurate assumptions," said Chong, himself a dental surgeon. The company posted a profit of S$4.6 million in the year ending December 2005.   

Chong said the firm might divest its two nursing homes and its psychiatric hospital, located in a high-end residential area of Singapore.

He said a decision regarding the double-storey psychiatric hospital could be imminent, as it could take advantage of a recent rise in real estate prices.