Fortis Healthcare Said in Talks to Invest in Vietnam’s Hoan My

By Joyce Koh

Aug. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Fortis Healthcare Ltd. is in talks to buy a controlling stake in Hoan My Medical Corp., the Vietnamese hospital operator backed by Deutsche Bank AG, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Shareholders of privately held Hoan My plan to sell more than 50 percent of the company in a deal that may value it at about $100 million, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private.

The acquisition would bolster Fortis’s expansion in Asia, where the Economist Intelligence Unit forecasts health-care spending per person will grow 55 percent between 2010 and 2015. Ho Chi Minh City-based Hoan My operates five hospitals and two clinics in Vietnam and plans to open more hospitals in the country, according to its website.

Fortis is mulling acquisitions to expand globally, Chairman Malvinder Singh said in September. Its holding company, Fortis Global Healthcare Holdings Pte., agreed to buy Hong Kong-based Quality HealthCare Asia Ltd. for HK$1.5 billion ($192.5 million) in October, after withdrawing from a bidding war for Parkway Holdings Ltd., Asia’s largest hospital operator, in July 2010.

Deutsche Bank’s DWS Vietnam Fund and VinaCapital Investment Management Ltd. invested $10 million each in October 2009 for a combined 40 percent stake in Hoan My. The investment would enable Hoan My, which according to its website was founded in 1997 by Nguyen Huu Tung, to focus on high-income patients, Nguyen said at that time.

Vishal Bali, chief executive officer of Fortis’ global healthcare unit, did not respond to two e-mails seeking comment.. Questions e-mailed to Hoan My yesterday went unanswered. Spokespeople for Deutsche Bank and VinaCapital declined to comment.

In June, Vietnam lowered its goal for economic expansion in 2011 for the second time in a month, to 6 percent, as officials struggle to tame the fastest inflation in Asia.

--With assistance from Adi Narayan in Mumbai. Editors: Mohammed Hadi, Philip Lagerkranser

To contact the reporter on this story: Joyce Koh in Singapore at jkoh38@bloomberg.net

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