METRO Pacific Health Corp. (MPH) said on Tuesday that it had invested and acquired a 70.4% stake in Medical Center Imus (MCI) to expand its nationwide network of private hospitals.
“This is our first hospital in the much-coveted Cavite Province which, due to industrialization and the influx of [overseas Filipino worker] families in the past decades, has grown to be the country’s second most populated and second densest province,” said MPH President Augusto P. Palisoc, Jr. in a statement.
MCI is a 90-bed Level 2 hospital that can readily be expanded to 120 beds. It caters to the cities of Imus and Bacoor in Cavite. The hospital has 97 active specialists and 200 visiting doctors.
“It sits on more than a hectare of property, inclusive of about 6,000 [square meters] of vacant land currently utilized for surface parking,” the company said.
Jo Eileen Suzanne Ringler-Pama, incoming deputy chief executive officer of MPH, said the company sees a lot of potential for the hospital due to its location within a highly populated market.
“We are excited to apply MPH’s group synergies to MCI and raise patient experience to new levels never before seen in Cavite, by strengthening management and investing in infrastructure improvements,” she added.
In the first quarter, the company more than doubled its core net income to P469 million, while its revenues jumped by 21% to P5.6 billion, driven by an increase in the number of patients.
MPH, a unit of listed conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC), claims to be the Philippines’ largest private hospital group, now with a nationwide network of 21 hospitals.
It also has 24 outpatient care centers, six provincial cancer radiotherapy centers, two allied healthcare colleges, and a central laboratory.
MPIC is one of three key Philippine units of First Pacific, the others being Philex Mining Corp. and PLDT Inc. Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has a majority stake in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. — Adrian H. Halili
