Fortis Healthcare Ltd. (FHL), a Ranbaxy promoter group company has acquired four acres of land in Bangalore, the healthcare capital of the country. The healthcare providers will set-up a 200-bed super-specialty hospital here in the city. No details of investment were disclosed.

According to thumb rule, an investment of Rs 40 lakh is required per bed for a tertiary care hospital and therefore to set up a 200 bed facility an investment of Rs 80 crore or more is expected from the healthcare major.

The new hospital is coming up on Hosur Road opposite the Narayana Hrudayalaya, the leading cardiac care major which has nephrology, orthopaedics and a neuro care centres within its premises.

It is also learnt that Fortis has revived its talks with Mallya Hospital in Bangalore for an acquisition. It may be recalled that in 2005 these talks with the Mallya hospital did not come through.

The Hospital major filed its Draft Red Herring Prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Board of India on September 29, 2006 with its proposal to enter the capital market with its initial public offering of equity shares. It aims to raise over Rs 730crore.

The company proposes to offer 56.6 million shares of Rs.10 each for cash at a premium to be decided through the 100 per cent book-building process to be listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange.

The Book Running Lead Managers to the issue are JM Morgan Stanley Private Limited, Citigroup Global Markets India Private Limited and Kotak Mahindra Capital Company Limited.

In an effort to adhere with the Sebi regulations, Fortis refused to divulge any details on its Bangalore land acquisition plans.

Fortis has been looking at hospitals in Bangalore. It began with the Imperial Hospital (promoted by an oncologist Dr Nisar Syed, based in Los Angeles and Ziaulla Shariff, a prominent real estate agent in the city. )where talks failed in the last moment and the facility was acquired by Apollo Group.

According to CRIS-INFAC's report of2005, Fortis is ranked as one of the largest private healthcare companies in India, based on the number of hospital beds, informed sources.

The decade old Fortis Healthcare currently has a network of 12 hospitals primarily in north India and 15 satellite and heart command centres in hospitals across the country and one heart command centre in Afghanistan. The hospitals include multi specialty hospitals, as well as super-specialty 'centres of excellence' providing tertiary and quaternary healthcare in cardiology, orthopaedics, neuro-sciences, renal care, pulmono -thoracic surgery and diabetic care. Besides these, the company also manages Fortis La Femme, a "boutique" style hospital that focuses on women's health and maternity care. It intends to construct a 500-bed facility in New Delhi and the Jaipur centre acquired from Escorts Hospital will be operational shortly.

Meanwhile in Bangalore, there is a stiff competition among corporate hospitals. The city already has big names like Manipal, Wockhardt, Narayana Hrudayalaya, Sagar, MS Ramaiah Memorial Hospital, Columbia Asia and One World (under construction). These hospitals alone make up over Rs.1,000 crore investments in the city and growing at over 20 per cent because of full capacity operations.