If there is a hot search in the industry, the news that Hong Kong's Asian Medical Group has obtained $400 million in financing shortly after the beginning of 2022 may occupy a place in the hot search list.
The author | Xiao Xiang
Source| Medical Community (ID: vistamed)
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Country Garden leads the investment in the cardiovascular leading medical group
On February 10, according to financial media reports, Hong Kong Asia Medical Group, a cardiovascular specialist medical brand, completed a US$400 million Series D financing, which was led by Country Garden Venture Capital and Primavera Capital.
Hong Kong Asia Medical Group currently owns three hospitals, including Wuhan Asian Heart Hospital, Wuhan Yaxin General Hospital and Xinjiang Asian Heart Hospital, while acquiring a cardiovascular center in Japan and a cardiovascular center in Hong Kong, with a total number of beds of nearly 3,000 beds.
Sun Lianghao, managing director of Country Garden Venture Capital, said that Asia Medical is an absolute market leader with both the top diagnosis and treatment technology and excellent professional medical team in the domestic private system, as well as the operational ability that has been fully tested by the new crown epidemic. "In the future, we will continue to support the development of enterprises, accompany the enterprises to grow into a top medical brand in Asia, benefit more patients, and create greater social value."
It is understood that the lead investor Country Garden is a fortune 500 real estate enterprise, listed in Hong Kong in 2007, in recent years, Country Garden's figure has repeatedly appeared in the field of medical services, and the shots are not small.
Source: Screenshot of Country Garden's official website
According to public information, in January 2019, Country Garden Group announced the establishment of Country Garden Venture Capital, and three months after its establishment, in April 2019, the head non-public medical service platform Penguin Almond Group announced the completion of a new round of financing of US$250 million, and Country Garden Venture Capital was also one of the leading investors.
Looking back at country garden and medical services, it is found that in August 2017, Country Garden signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the international hospitals group limited (IHG) in Malaysia, stipulating that the two sides will carry out in-depth cooperation in the fields of international top medical resources and experts, hospital function planning and design/hospital construction project management, hospital operation management, and medical training.
Some of the real estate giants build hospitals, and some buy hospitals
This is just a microcosm of real estate's foray into healthcare. Looking at the real estate industry, the revenue growth in recent years has not been as good as in previous years, and under the requirements of seeking a way out, entering the medical care has become the preferred choice of many enterprises.
Taking the real estate giant Wanda Group as an example, in recent years, it has also made a lot of movement in the medical field. As early as 2016, Wanda announced the signing of a cooperation agreement with the British International Hospital Group (IHG), with a total investment of 15 billion yuan, to build three comprehensive international hospitals in Shanghai, Chengdu and Qingdao, operated and managed by IHG and using the IHG brand. But a few years later, Wanda Ying Ci International Hospital has no following.
In September 2018, Wanda Group changed partners and announced that it had signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center ("UPMC"), and in the next few years, Wanda will cooperate with UPMC to build four international hospitals.
On February 1, 2021, Chengdu Wanda UPMC International Hospital announced a personnel appointment and dismissal, and Dr. Randy Jernejcic, who was the chief medical officer of Beijing United Family Hospital, served as CEO. It is reported that the hospital will open at the end of this year. According to public information, the total construction area of the hospital is 400,000 square meters, with a total investment of 6 billion yuan.
On November 2, 2020, Shenzhen Hezheng Hospital, invested and operated by Shenzhen Hezheng Holding Group, which is mainly engaged in real estate development, was officially opened. It is understood that Shenzhen Hezheng Hospital has a total investment of 4 billion yuan, with a total of 1,200 beds and 700 open beds in the first phase; it has three major medical centers: a comprehensive medical center, a tumor diagnosis and treatment center and a rehabilitation treatment center; at the same time, it has built six key disciplines of heart center, obstetrics and gynecology center, pediatric center, rehabilitation center, tumor center and integrated medicine center.
On the one hand, real estate companies are building their own hospitals, and on the other hand, they are also acquiring hospital assets. On September 29, 2021, Longhu Group, a well-known listed real estate developer, announced that it would acquire Chongqing Youyou (Remarks: Chongqing Youyou Baby Women's and Children's Hospital) and related assets for 1.08 billion yuan. It is reported that Longfor Group has been awarded the "Top 10 Comprehensive Strength of China's Real Estate Development Enterprises" for 9 consecutive years and was selected as one of the 2021 Fortune Global 500. With the completion of the acquisition, real estate company Longfor Group will add the concept of maternal and child medical care.
Heavy money is thrown at how to play with medical treatment
However, the current situation of "interlacing like a mountain" is particularly important in the medical field. In the early stage, some of the real estate companies that entered the medical industry have retreated, while some have fallen into the quagmire.
In September 2020, Evergrande Health, a Hong Kong-listed company under Evergrande Group, issued an announcement that the company name was changed from Evergrande Health Industry Group Co., Ltd. to China Evergrande New Energy Automobile Group Co., Ltd. Previously, the company had issued an announcement of proposed name change, and the reason for the name change was that "new energy vehicles have become the most important business of Evergrande Health Industry Group".
It is understood that in February 2015, Evergrande Real Estate completed the acquisition of 74.99% of the shares of Hong Kong-listed enterprise MediaCorp, becoming its controlling shareholder, and on April 20, 2015, it was renamed Evergrande Health Industry Group, referred to as Evergrande Health. In the past few years of entering medical health, Evergrande's health "ambition" has paid a huge price. In 2018, Evergrande Health's total borrowings were only 14.9 billion yuan, and by 2019, this figure had soared to 62.8 billion yuan, an increase of 4.2 times year-on-year.
In the field of medical and health, Evergrande may be more like a step with one foot to test it, when it feels that the temperature is not ideal, it withdraws in time, and Yihua Real Estate, which is also a real estate enterprise, is a comprehensive transformation of medical health, and the stock is renamed Yihua Health. Since then, the road of "buying, buying and buying" has been opened all the way. However, from 2015 to 2020, in the past 5 years of transformational medical treatment, Yihua Health's performance has been declining, and in 2019 alone, it has lost more than one billion yuan.
Real estate enterprises invest heavily in medical treatment and run medical services across borders, which can be described as outstanding capital advantages, but in the medical field, only capital is difficult to advance smoothly.
Dr. Zhang Qiang, a well-known expert in vascular surgery and founder of Dr. Zhang Qiang Group, once said that unlike other industries, what is most lacking in China's medical and health industry is not capital, nor is there a shortage of hospital buildings, what is missing is the soil for the flow of doctors' talent resources, what is missing is a large number of doctors who meet international medical service standards, what is missing is a fair and orderly private public competition mechanism, and what is missing is an international doctor training system.
Some insiders believe that how real estate enterprises with strong capital can use the advantages of capital in operation management, market operation, talent training and capital operation to promote the effective integration of medical service units deserves more in-depth discussion. (This article is published by "Seeing the Medical Community", reprinted with permission, and the author and source are indicated at the beginning of the article.) ）