Raffles Medical Group eyes Chinese market

The Singaporean medical group Raffles Medical Group is eyeing the regional markets with its recent plan to inject SG$1billion into its effort to set up hospitals and clinics in Asia including the Singapore market.Of this SG$1 billion, SG$600million of the budget will be used to develop its regional growth, especially in China where an increased demand for healthcare is expected due to government reforms and the onset of an ageing population, hence a rise in expenditure. This will be done over the next three years.“We have integrated the MCH clinics into Raffles and successfully rebranded them in China and Cambodia. We are looking for opportunities to expand in and beyond the 13 cities that we currently operate in, so that our patients and clients can seamlessly experience the Raffles brand of quality care and service across our network,” Loo Choon Yong, group chairman and co-founder, said in a press statement.Its Shanghai hospital is expected to be ready by the end of 2018, with plans for new hospitals in Beijing and Shenzhen. The medical group currently has representative offices in Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Brunei, Bangladesh and the Russian Far East, as well as associates throughout the Asia Pacific region.The expansion is likely to be funded through revenue from its existing operations and the group expects sales to grow to about 11% in upcoming years.In its Q1 financial results, Raffles Group reported a 23.0% growth in revenue from SG$95.0 million in Q1 2015 to SG$116.9 million in Q1 2016.Revenue growth was largely due to healthcare and hospital services and was driven by an increased patient load, greater intensity of medical care and more specialists. Growth was also attributed to a recent acquisition of International SOS (MC Holdings) and its subsidiaries.Locally, the medical group also opened a new centre in Holland Village in June. It is its second multi-disciplinary medical facility in Singapore outside of Raffles Hospital, the first being in Orchard at Shaw Centre.