Aster DM Healthcare's newly-hived off Gulf entity is considering acquiring assets worth as much as $250 million in a bid to expand its footprint in Saudi Arabia.
The deals are likely to be for medical centers and hospitals and completed in the next three to five years, said Alisha Moopen, managing director and group chief executive officer of Aster’s Gulf Cooperation Council unit.
“We have a very solid lineup of acquisitions that we are evaluating right now,” she said in an interview. “We are not only doubling down, we are tripling down on Saudi Arabia.”
Health care is one of the main focus areas of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s trillion-dollar Vision 2030 plan, as the government makes a push to draw in expatriates to the biggest Middle Eastern economy.
Aster aims to have more than 1,000 hospital beds, 180 pharmacies and more than two dozen medical centers across Saudi Arabia in the next three to five years. It currently operates one hospital in Riyadh and expects to run about 20 pharmacies in the next few months.
The United Arab Emirates-based firm, which is listed in India, agreed last year to sell a majority stake in its Gulf business for $1 billion. A spin off of the unit, which now operates as a private entity, was completed in April.
“It’s a good time to build before we take the company public, but the end goal is in the next few years to look at a listing,” Moopen said.
She declined to comment on where in the GCC Aster may pursue a public offering but she’s closely watching companies including Lulu Group International, which Bloomberg News reported is eying a dual listing in Abu Dhabi and Riyadh.
The Saudi health-care sector has seen some listing activity of late, with Dr. Soliman Abdel Kader Fakeeh Hospital Co. raising $763 million in the country’s biggest IPO of the year. Meanwhile, the Saudi wealth fund is preparing to list the kingdom’s largest medical procurement firm, Bloomberg News has reported.
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