EQT backs Southeast Asia hospital operator

It follows a take-private offer from EQT in July last year that valued the company at S$611 million ($452 million). HMI was delisted from the Singapore Exchange on December 24.

Founded in 1998 and based in Singapore, HMI operates two tertiary hospitals in Malaysia, which serve about 100,000 international patients a year. The company maintains network offices across the region and operates an ambulatory care and healthcare training center in Singapore, where it also holds a stake in a chain of general practice clinics.

HMI claims to serve more than 500,000 patients a year across its portfolio of assets with about 200 practicing doctors and 1,800 additional staff. For the year ended June 2018, the company reported MYR468 million ($113 million) in revenue, up from MYR436 million the year before. Over the same period, net profit grew from MYR42 million to MYR60 million.

“HMI is a well-established healthcare group with a high-quality, talented team and a solid track record in the region,” Brian Chang, a partner at EQT, said in a statement. “Going forward, the joint focus will be on scaling HMI’s operations in the region with its differentiated, passionate and hands-on approach while continuing to deliver high quality healthcare to its customers.”

EQT invested via its Mid-Market Asia III fund, which closed in 2018 at $800 million with a view to making control and co-control investments in a range of EUR40-100 million ($45-111 million) across Greater China and Southeast Asia The firm said it would consider supporting HMI by making additional acquisitions as well as through synergies with its existing global network of medical investments.

EQT’s recent healthcare activity in Southeast Asia includes an investment in MHC Asia, a services provider that helps corporate clients customize health and wellness benefit offerings. The Singapore-based business, which uses a range of technology-enabled data analytics techniques, processes about 1.8 million medical claims a year for clients such as insurance companies, covering 800,000 patients regionally.

The HMI investment follows closely on two exits for EQT. Last month, the private equity firm agreed to sell US medical devices provider Clinical Innovations to Canada’s Laborie Medical Technologies for $525 million. This coincided with the sale of PSM International, a Chinese plastic and metal industrial components manufacturer, to Sweden-based automotive supplier Bulten for an undisclosed sum.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Healthcare
• Expansion
• Malaysia
• Singapore
• EQT Partners