MVP targets 50-hospital network in 5 years

MANILA, Philippines — Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) chairman and CEO Manuel V. Pangilinan intends to bring his group’s network of hospitals to 50 through the acquisition of more medical facilities nationwide.

“My personal target, hopefully we reach 50 hospitals. I hope we can do that in five years or so,” Pangilinan said.

He said that acquisitions are part of the agenda of Metro Pacific’s hospital group.

From its maiden investment in Makati Medical Center in 2007, Metro Pacific Health Corp. (MPH) has emerged as country’s largest private hospital group.

MPH recently made its 28th hospital investment with the acquisition of a majority stake in Metro Antipolo Hospital and Medical Center Inc.

Under the leadership of Pangilinan, MPH is committed to improve the delivery of quality and affordable health care throughout the nation by not only improving the hospitals in its network, but also continuously growing its nationwide portfolio of health care facilities.

MPIC is also working to regain control of MPH, with the company looking to secure another 30 percent stake in its health care arm as part of the stake sale being undertaken by its majority shareholders.

KKR & Co. and Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC have earlier initiated a process to sell their majority stake in MPH.

KKR and GIC hold an 80-percent stake in MPH, while MPIC owns the remaining 20 percent.

“Actually the ball is in their court. On our end, we are willing. We made the offer with our co-investors from KKR,” MPIC chief finance, risk and sustainability officer Chaye Cabal-Revilla said.

“That has always been the mandate of MVP, to get back the Metro Pacific Health Group,” she said.

MPIC sold shares in MPH to KKR and GIC in 2019 in a deal aimed at enabling the hospital group to further grow its network.

“It enabled us to expand our other businesses through the funds that we got there. So here, we have bigger plans because mWell is wholly owned by MPIC, so there’s a lot of integration. We’re even doing the digitalization of MPH and the hospitals,” Cabal-Revilla said.

A health technology platform developed by MPIC’s Metro Pacific Health Tech Corp., mWell offers telemedicine, health and wellness programs, e-commerce, among others, in an integrated, tech-based health care digital ecosystem.

As for MPH, other premier hospitals in its portfolio include Asian Hospital and Medical Center, Cardinal Santos Medical Center, Davao Doctors Hospital and Riverside Medical Center in Bacolod.