IHH Healthcare-backed Global Hospitals is exploring potential acquisition opportunities and operations and management (O&M) deals, as it looks to expand its footprint in India.

“Until last year we were not looking at opportunities. We felt that we need to stabilize ourselves,” said Dr Vivek Talaulikar, COO of IHH Healthcare India & CEO of Global Hospitals, Mumbai, in an interview to ET.

“Last year (2022) we got out of the red. 2023 is a year we think we have to expand and consolidate,”Talaulikar said. Talaulikar added that Global Hospitals is looking to expand in its existing territories, where he feels the management bandwidth will not get stretched.

“If you take Mumbai, there is tremendous opportunity for us to expand into peripheries,” Talaulikar

Talaulikar said Global Hospitals is open to any size, but 200-250 bed hospitals, is where it can devote more time for patients, and see to it that it delivers customer service excellence.

Global Hospitals went through a challenging phase, with Covid disrupting its major revenue stream – organ transplant surgeries, and it received further setback when its senior transplant team left, which resulted in scaling back of organ transplant surgeries in Western region.

Talaulikar said Global has to rebuild its multi organ transplant team led by Dr Gaurav Chaubal.”Now that our transplant volumes are back, our occupancy rates at group level are at 60-65%. We ended 2022 with year-on-year growth of 14-15%, we are Ebitda positive,” Talaulikar said. He expects the growth in 2023 to be much higher with volumes of multiorgan transplant numbers growing and the Group’s outreach and collaborations with hospitals in tier-2 and tier-3 cities and towns.

Talaulikar added that medical tourism is also seeing gradual pick up, as India continues to be the most affordable destination for organ transplant globally. “Today maybe we are at 5% (of revenues), it was 9-10% at the group level during pre-pandemic. It is picking up so well that we can grow beyond pre-pandemic levels,” Talaulikar added.

IHH Healthcare in 2015 acquired a controlling stake in Ravindranath GE Medical Associates (Global Hospitals) for ₹1,284 crore. Thereafter it infused ₹265 crore to fund the hospital chain’s capex requirements and optimise cost. IHH Healthcare currently operates a network of six Global Hospitals, with about 1,000 beds in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai. Global Hospitals known for its complex multi-organ complex multi-organ transplantation, that contributes about 30% of its revenues.