Lippo Karawaci to build more hospitals

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Publicly listed property company PT Lippo Karawaci Tbk will expand its healthcare business by renovating two of its international-standard Siloam Hospitals, and building five new ones at a total cost of US$500 million.

President director Viven G. Sitiabudi said Tuesday that the company would open four more hospitals in Jakarta and another one in Bandung over the next five to 10 years.

The four new hospitals in Jakarta will be built at Semanggi, Central Jakarta; Kemang, South Jakarta; Puri Indah, West Jakarta; and Pluit, North Jakarta, with each hospital having 250 beds.

Currently, the company operates hospitals in Jakarta at Lippo Karawaci, Tangerang at Lippo Cikarang, Bekasi and Surabaya, as well as a specialist clinic in Jakarta.

"This year, we will start our expansion program by building a Siloam Hospital in Semanggi and renovating hospitals in Kebon Jeruk, West Jakarta, and in Surabaya," Viven said, adding that the three projects would cost the company about $50 million.

The groundbreaking ceremony for the Siloam Hospital Semanggi, which will include a cancer center, will take place Saturday, with the hospital slated to open its doors in December 2008.

According to Viven, the cancer center, to be called the Mochtar Riyadi Comprehensive Cancer Center (MRCCC), would be the first privately owned and the most comprehensive oncology center in Indonesia. It would provide complete cancer diagnoses and treatments, including early detection of the disease, with state-of-the-art technologies, such as positron emission tomography scanning, high intensity focused ultrasound and radio immunotherapy.

She said that the company would invest $21 million on medical equipment for the new cancer center.

"By establishing new hospitals equipped with sophisticated equipment and staffed by medical professionals, we hope that those patients who would usually go to neighboring countries like Singapore for medical treatment will now seek it at our hospitals," she said.

She added that the new hospitals were expected to boost the annual number of patients served by the company to some two million over the next five to 10 years from about 600,000 at present, and to create about 4,000 new jobs.

Besides the cancer center at the Siloam Hospital Semanggi, the company will also establish a surgical center at the Siloam Hospital Puri Indah.

The two hospitals to be renovated -- the Siloam Hospital Kebon Jeruk and Siloam Hospital Surabaya -- will be equipped with trauma, gastroenterology, fertility, orthopedic and sports medicine centers.

The hospitals currently operated by the company already boast a number of specialist facilities. For example, the Siloam Hospital Lippo Karawaci has neuroscience and cardiac centers, while the Siloam Hospital Lippo Cikarang has urology and internal disease centers.

Viven said that in financing the expansion project, the company would use the $100 million in proceeds raised by real estate investment trusts (REITs) -- stock-market instruments associated with the property business -- that it issued last year in Singapore.

The healthcare business, Viven said, contributed 25 percent of the company's total revenue last year, which amounted to Rp 1.9 trillion (US$208.7 million).

Besides its healthcare business, Lippo Karawaci is also a major player in the property business, including like commercial, retail, residential and industrial property.