KOCHI: Aster DM Healthcare, which runs a chain of hospitals in India and the Gulf region, on Wednesday said it would invest Rs 850 crore over the next five years in India to establish five super-specialty hospitals, out of which two will come up at Thiruvananthapuram and Kannur in Kerala.
The healthcare conglomerate, promoted by Dubai-based billionaire Dr Azad Moopen, recently announced its plans to list on the bourses. The IPO will be open on February 12 and close on February 15 with a price band of Rs 180-190 per Equity Share of face value of Rs 10 each.
“Funds mobilised through the IPO will be utilised to repay company’s debt in India and procure modern medical equipment. Since debt in India is costlier, priority will be to repay the debt in the country,” Moopen, chairman of Aster DM Healthcare, told reporters here on Wednesday.
In India, Aster’s hospitals are located in Kochi, Kolhapur, Kozhikode, Kottakkal, Bengaluru, Vijayawada, Guntur, Wayanad and Hyderabad and are generally operated under the ‘Aster’, ‘MIMS’, “Ramesh” or ‘Prime’ brands. The company’s clinics in India are located in Kozhikode, Eluru, and Bengaluru. The company has 17,408 employees as on September 30, 2017 including 1,417 full-time doctors, 5,797 nurses, 1,752 paramedics and 8,442 other employees.