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Dr Prathap C. Reddy

Our Bureau

Hyderabad, June 6 Apollo Hospitals Group has sealed a deal with International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank’s private sector arm, for a funding of $50 million, which will help the healthcare firm speed up its ongoing Rs 1,400-crore expansion programme.

The IFC funding package will consist of a debt component of $35 million with a 10-year repayment period and $15 million worth convertible debentures.

“We have already signed the agreement with IFC and we expect to get the funds shortly,” Dr Prathap C. Reddy, Chairman of the Apollo Hospitals Group, told newspersons here.

The Group is implementing a Rs 1,400-crore expansion programme that involves adding 1,800 beds to its existing healthcare facilities across the country and technology up-gradation. “We have already spent Rs 520 crore so far,” Dr Reddy said, adding that the Group was comfortably placed as far as cash reserves were concerned. “Our debt-equity ratio is 0.05, which makes the prospect of raising funds easy,” he added.

The expansion programme encompasses the Group’s facilities at Karimnagar, Chennai, Visakhapatnam and Hyderabad, among other places. The Group at present has about 7,500 beds across 43 hospitals in India and overseas, apart from a chain of neighbourhood diagnostic clinics, medical BPOs and clinical research divisions.

As part of the expansion programme, the Group is setting up India’s first Novalis Radio-surgery facility at its Apollo Health City at Hyderabad. The facility is being procured from Varian Medial Systems, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of radiotherapy and radiosurgery solutions, and BrainLAB, a global major in the development and manufacture of software-driven technology.

“This equipment provides one of the most precise, non-invasive and fastest treatments available for cancerous and non-cancerous conditions of the entire body. The advantages are that treatment is delivered from outside the body to destroy tumours without an incision, protection of the patient’s healthy tissue and faster treatment,” Dr Reddy explained.

The other new facilities being set up at the Hyderabad unit include a Knee Institute to offer a wide range of services to manage knee problems, Bariatric Surgery Institute to offer surgical help for obese people and an Institute of Aesthetics and Cosmetic Surgery.

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