The Delhi based Fortis Healthcare Ltd, a Ranbaxy group company, is planning to make its presence felt in the southern and western parts of the country by 2010.At the same time Fortis is also planning to establish 45 to 50 hospitals in various parts of the country.

According to sources, the company has set targets to set up around 50 hospitals with multiple facilities incorporated, estimating to reach a total bed capacity of 6000 beds all over the country. The company, which have 11 hospitals at present, is on the process of setting up four more hospitals in various parts of the country, as the part of this augmentation.

The company seems to have plans to focus on the western and southern part of India. There is also a potential gap identified in North East India including West Bengal, which the company may explore in the mean time, a source said. The other ventures of Ranbaxy, including SRL Ranbaxy pathlabs network would support the easy execution of expansion plan.

The company is planning to seek professional and technical advices from McKinsey and company, the global consulting firm McKinsey for the expansion plans. VASCO, an investment arm of McKinsey and company, has picked up 6.7 lakh equity shares of Fortis Healthcare in a pre-IPO placement round for an investment amount of Rs 10.69 crore, recently.

Currently, the company is planning to set up four more hospitals with multiple facilities in the northern parts of the country. The operations for a 152-bed hospital at Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra and 163-bed hospital at Jaipur are already on the way. Works for a hospital at Shalimarbagh, North West Delhi will be commenced by 2008-09 and another one at Gurgaon by 2009-2010. The four new projects will augment the capacity of accommodation by 923 beds, while the current number of beds is around 1700 to 2000 beds.

The company has recorded a growth of 110 per cent on CAGR in the last five years, and has announced launching of public offering by the current week. The company is looking up for growth in all the three systems, of setting up hospitals of its own, acquisition and management contract with other hospitals, the company officials announced as the part of IPO issuance. The company, which have 11 hospitals and 16 satellite centres at present, has also upgraded six to eight super speciality focused centres of excellence within the facility.