IHH Healthcare Rebrands Global Hospitals as Gleneagles for Consolidation in India

In order to make its presence stronger in the Indian hospital business, IHH Healthcare Berhad, Asia's largest private healthcare group has been re-branding Global Hospitals under the brand Gleneagles. It is reported that IHH is a majority investor in Gleneagles.

Medical Dialogues team had earlier reported that IHH sold six percent stake of it in Apollo Hospitals Enterprise for Rs 1,070 crore ($160 million) primarily to run its own Hospital business in India.

Read also: Apollo Hospitals 6 percent stake sold for Rs 1,070 crore

IHH has currently has five brands in in its bucket- Mount Elizabeth, Gleneagles, Pantai, Parkway and Acibadem.

Speaking about their re-branding idea under 'Gleneagles' an IHH official told Business Standard, "We are further consolidating our India platform by re-branding our Global Hospitals facilities under the IHH 'Gleneagles' brand. This will drive greater brand equity."

IHH Healthcare currently has 10 operating hospitals in India, including Apollo Gleneagles Hospital in Kolkata, which is a joint venture with Apollo Hospitals. With the re-branding, nine out of the 10 operating hospitals that it has in India will have the brand Gleneagles attached to them. This includes eight Global Hospitals which will be known as Gleneagles Global Hospitals. Continental Hospitals, in which the company acquired a 51 per cent stake in 2015 for Rs 282 crore, has not been re-branded so far, reports Business Standard.

In August 2015, IHH Healthcare had also acquired a 73.4 per cent stake in Ravindranath GE Medical Associates Pvt Ltd, which had hospitals under the brand Global Hospitals, for Rs 1,284 crore.

Speaking with BS, an analyst from Hong Leong Investment Bank said, "We foresee that there is a potential for the group to divest the remaining stake of 4.78 per cent in the near future as the group consolidates and rationalises its investments in their fourth home market."

While talking about their expansion in India, the IHH official said, "We are excited that India is now our fourth home market after we successfully re-calibrated our growth strategy here, learning from our Khubchandani experience to focus on brown field products."

Regarding disinvestment in Apollo, the official said, "We have nothing new to add on our 6.07 per cent equity interest divestment in Apollo Hospitals Enterprise. We are retaining our remaining 4.78 per cent stake for the moment."