Apollo Hospitals invest Rs 1,400 crore for expansion

Apollo Hospitals is currently investing Rs 1,400 crore for setting up four hospitals, a few clinics and homecare services around India.

"The four hospitals will come up in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Guwahati and Visakhapatnam," Joint MD Apollo hospitals, Sangita Reddy, said. "It was Rs 1,400 crore investment including the Guwahati facility (besides three other hospitals) and Homecare investments made in clinics during last year, Reddy told reporters on the sidelines of the launch of Apollo Homecare operations here.

Earlier, group chairman Prathap C Reddy said Apollo Hospitals currently has 9,000 beds and is expected to cross 10,000 once the new hospitals commence operations in a few months. "Currently, the debt-equity ratio is in a comfortable position. All the new hospitals are funded through the internal accruals. If we go for new hospitals after this, then we may look for funding from outside," Prathap C Reddy said when asked about the funding of the hospitals.

According to him, the investment for Mumbai hospital is Rs 550 crore while Bengaluru and Visakhapatnam facilities will cost Rs 150 crore and Rs 170 crore, respectively. Meanwhile, Apollo today launched Homecare operations in Hyderabad, Chennai and Delhi."The services will be offered in all Tier-I cities and 13 Tier-II cities during next year and will target 1,00,000 lives in the first year of operations," CEO Apollo Homecare, Mahesh Joshi said.Apollo Homecare offers personalised services to elderly, chronically ill patients, post-surgery recovery patients, he added.