THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Dr Azad Moopen’s Dubai-based Aster DM Healthcare group has filed with stock market regulator Sebi to launch its initial public offering. Aster group will be the fourth such chain in the country to go public. Apollo, Fortis and Narayana Hrudayalaya have led the IPO route to raise capital from the market to fund their expansion programmes in the country.
Kotak Mahindra Capital, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Edelweiss, ICICI Securities, JM Financial and SBI Capital Market will manage the IPO, which is expected to be in the range of Rs 1,900 crore to Rs 2,000 crore. The group is already the largest employer in the healthcare sector in the state, owning four hospitals and employing 8,000 people.
In 1987, Dr Moopen quit his job at the Medical College Hospital in Kozhikode to start a modest clinic in Dubai. His hospital-pharmacy chain now includes six hospitals, 83 clinics and 180 retail pharmacies in Gulf countries, seven multi-specialty hospitals and three clinics in India, and one in the Philippines.
Aster Medcity in Kochi is a super speciality hospital cluster, a niche facility in the country. When Dr Moopen called on Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan last week he committed '600 crore worth of projects in three years, including a 500-bed tertiary hospital near Akkulam. The proposed LuLu mall is in the vicinity.
The group had last month announced a 250-bed multi-specialty hospital in Kannur and a new 300-bed superspecialty hospital in Kozhikode. DM Wayanad Institute of Medical Science is another Aster group venture. With the proposed expansion at Aster MIMS Calicut, the group’s projects will add another 1,000 beds to existing capacity of 2,000 beds in the state. The annual salary bill in the State is Rs 300 crore and the three new projects are expected to add about 4,000 more jobs.
