This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on August 21, 2017
KUALA LUMPUR: TMC Life Sciences Bhd says its plan to set up the RM5 billion Vantage Bay Healthcare City in Johor Baru (JB) — comprising the Thomson Iskandar Medical Hub, a health sciences education platform and a wellness hub — remains intact.
“On our plans for Thomson Iskandar which encompasses the 500-bed Hospital Iskandariah and an adjoining medical tower, we are still working with the health ministry to obtain their approval for the design of the project,” said group chief executive officer Roy Quek.
“As it is a greenfield project with many innovative elements in keeping with our desire to make it an iconic landmark for healthcare in Johor, the planning and approval process will take more time than a run-of-the-mill project,” he said in an emailed response to The Edge Financial Daily.
The proposed healthcare city is also where the health sciences university, TMC’s maiden venture into the education space in Malaysia, will be located in. On July 19 last year, the group inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with University College Dublin (UCD) to jointly collaborate on health education in Malaysia and Singapore.
However, the MoU lapsed on July 18 this year. On this, Quek said that the group has completed the joint studies and reviews with UCD for the health sciences education platform.
“We have completed our studies for the health sciences project in JB ... but our priority is to get the hospital work started first.
“We are now looking at options for collaboration [for health sciences] centred on our hospital in Kota Damansara in the interim with UCD as well as others, while awaiting the completion of the regulatory approval process for Thomson Iskandar,” he said.
TMC operates the Tropicana Medical Centre in Kota Damansara, Petaling Jaya. Last Friday, the group held a ground-breaking ceremony for a new extension block of the existing hospital.
Slated to be ready by 2020, the new block will triple the hospital’s current capacity of 200 beds to 600 beds. The group has allocated about RM300 million from its internally generated funds and borrowings for the new extension block.
“After the extension is completed by 2020, we will still have one-third of the six-acre (2.43ha) land on site for further development to keep up with future demand trends for high-quality private healthcare in Malaysia,” said Quek.
TMC’s largest shareholder is Singaporean billionaire Peter Lim Eng Hock, who controls some 70.36% of the company held through his vehicles Sasteria Pte Ltd, Incanto Investments Ltd and Best Blend Sdn Bhd.
On July 18, Singapore Exchange-listed Rowsley Ltd, which is also controlled by Lim, announced its plan to expand into the healthcare sector with the signing of a non-binding term sheet to purchase Lim’s 70.36% stake in TMC and 100% stake in Thomson Medical Pte Ltd for S$1.9 billion (RM6 billion).
Quek declined to comment on the deal as it has not been completed yet.
TMC’s net profit for the nine months ended May 31, 2017 rose 24.5% to RM14.94 million from RM12 million a year ago. Revenue increased 15% to RM112.4 million from RM97.63 million on higher patient load supported by additional bed capacity, additional consultants recruited and targeted marketing activities.
“Based on our performance for the first nine months of this financial year, I believe that 2017 will be another good year for TMC,” said Quek.
“We expect to outperform on all key indicators compared with last year as we reap the benefits of the additional beds that have been brought into service in the past year, recruitment of more specialist consultants, and a greater focus on operational efficiency and optimisation,” said Quek.
TMC’s share price closed up three sen or 4% at 78 sen last Friday. Year to date, the counter has come down by 18.8%.