IHH is scaling India investments. Here’s what it means

IHH Healthcare is planning to establish India as a global business services hub to support its operations across international markets, highlighting a broader role for the country in the group’s global strategy beyond hospital expansion.

The global healthcare provider listed in Malaysia and Singapore, which controls Fortis Healthcare, said India will remain one of its biggest investment destinations as it expands hospital capacity, pursues acquisitions, and increases investments in diagnostics and health technology.

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“In addition to our hospital expansion, one of our major initiatives over the coming months and into the next year is to consolidate some of our shared services to drive greater economies of scale. We are looking at establishing shared services centres in India to support our operations across other markets. India will serve as the hub for these capabilities, and we are making significant investments in this area,” Quek Sin Kwok, Group Chief Business Technology Officer, IHH Healthcare, told Business Today.

The move comes as IHH accelerates its expansion in India through Fortis Healthcare. The company has outlined plans to increase its hospital network through brownfield expansion and O&M agreements. It is also evaluating selective acquisitions and greenfield opportunities.

“India remains a very important market for us because it continues to deliver strong, stable growth. Fortis has already outlined its plans to reach 10,000 beds by 2030, and we already have visibility around 8,000 beds through brownfield expansion. Along the way, we will continue to evaluate selective and strategic M&A opportunities. India will remain a key destination for IHH’s incremental capital allocation, and we remain very bullish on the country’s medium- to long-term growth prospects,” Ashok Pandit, Group Chief Corporate Officer, IHH Healthcare, said.

The company said its expansion strategy will continue to focus on strengthening existing hospital clusters across Delhi-NCR, Punjab, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Tamil Nadu and Kolkata, while evaluating opportunities in other markets where they fit its long-term plans.

Alongside expanding hospitals, IHH is also increasing its focus on health technology through startup partnerships and investments. The group currently has an innovation fund of around SGD 80 million, a substantial part of which has already been committed across healthcare startups in areas such as cancer diagnostics, digital health, proton therapy, mental health, and sleep disorders. It now plans to extend that approach to India.

“The Catalyst programme is only the beginning. We want to identify promising startups, bring them into our ecosystem, and allow them to work within our hospitals. Beyond that, we also want to invest in India’s health-tech sector in a structured and systematic manner,” Pandit said.

The company is also investing in technology across its hospitals to improve clinical outcomes, patient experience and operational efficiency. Rather than viewing technology spending separately, executives said the focus is on measurable improvements in care delivery and productivity.

“We invest in technology at levels comparable with leading healthcare providers globally. Technology today is embedded across our core systems, diagnostics, and clinical platforms. We focus less on how much we spend on individual technologies and more on the outcomes they deliver for our clinicians, our operations and, ultimately, our patients,” Kwok said.

Executives said improving productivity would also be important in managing rising healthcare costs without compromising patient care.

“If we don’t take costs out of the system, improve productivity, and provide better tools for our staff, we will eventually face a cost challenge. Our objective is to make healthcare more efficient, so those costs are not passed on to patients. That will remain one of our biggest priorities over the next five to ten years,” Pandit said.

Beyond hospitals and diagnostics, the company said health technology will become a larger part of its India strategy over the coming years.

“India remains a very important core market for IHH. Through the Fortis platform, you will continue to see us make significant investments in hospitals, diagnostics and, increasingly, health-tech,” Pandit said.