Manipal Hospitals, set to become the largest tertiary healthcare provider in the private sector in the country, has undertaken an asset light route to expansion for greenfield ventures. The company, Manipal Health Enterprises will come up with four new hospitals in India, adding about 1,100 beds in its portfolio. In each of these projects, the land and the building are owned by third parties, while the hospitals will be run by the chain.

It will invest Rs 1,500 crore in the four ongoing projects in healthcare infrastructure such as medical devices. Three of these will come up in Bangalore and one in Raipur. Backed by Singapore’s sovereign fund Temasek, the company has scaled up rapidly through acquisitions, and is open to partnering with land owners/ real estate developers for growth.

On sites where it owns land, the healthcare provider would look to build on its own, such as the acquisition of AMRI secured a plot in Rajarhat in Kolkata where it would develop a 350-bed hospital at an investment of Rs 525 crore. The company has announced the rebranding of AMRI Hospital as Manipal.

Manipal’s move mirrors the development of the hospitality sector in India where hotel chains built its own hotels, and later moved to the lease model and now to management contracts. In future, the operation and management contract model would also come up.

The company plans to add 1,000 beds, all in asset light models. The asset light model allows hospitals to expand faster as deployment of funds will be only in medical facilities, while investment in land and building will be the responsibility of realtors.