HCL ventures into healthcare

New Delhi February 7, 2014:- The HCL group on Thursday announced that it would foray into the health care segment, the first diversification outside its core business of information technology. Through the next five years, the group plans to invest Rs 1,000 crore in the venture, to operate through a countrywide network of out-patient multi-speciality clinics called HCL Avitas.

HCL Healthcare, the group’s health care arm, is in talks with hospital chains to partner it in tertiary care.

Funded through HCL Corporation, the holding company of HCL Technologies and HCL Infosystems Ltd, the venture has started operations by acquiring two Bharat Family Clinic branches in the National Capital Region.

HCL Avitas clinics will offer value-added services such as personalised relationship managers and electronic medical records to patients. They will also provide in-house services such as diagnostics, pharmacies and radiology. The venture is primarily targeted at the urban middle-class population of corporate employees, small and medium enterprises and small businessmen.

HCL Healthcare Vice-Chairman Shikhar Malhotra told Business Standard collaboration with Johns Hopkins Medicine International in the US would help in implementing the concept in India. “Here, a patient beyond doctor’s care will be handled by a team of specialists, which will include a health care coordinator, essentially a relationship manager. This is a unique patient-centric approach.”

The company would initially focus on expanding these clinics, but in the long run, might also foray into secondary and tertiary care and build its own hospitals.

Initially, the group plans to expand its health care division in northern India. So far, the venture has 125 people on board, clinical and non-clinical staff. “We intend to provide a continuum of care to our patients. Right now, we will partner some of the best hospital networks in India. There is a referral mechanism going into these hospitals. Discussions are on around this,” Malhotra said.

While HCL founder-chairman Shiv Nadar is on the board of the health care company, his daughter, Roshni Nadar Malhotra, will not be involved with the new venture.

The company’s promoters are also involved in the education sector, through Shiv Nadar University and Shiv Nadar School. These are not-for-profit institutions run by the Shiv Nadar Foundation.

Of late, health care has attracted many corporate groups, including B K Modi’s Spice Global, who view this segment as a de-risking strategy. According to industry estimates, the domestic health care sector is poised to touch $100 billion by 2015 and $275.6 billion by 2020. In 2010, the sector was estimated at $40 billion.

In November 2013, Nadar had committed Rs 3,000 crore through the next five years to expand the Shiv Nadar Foundation’s education ventures, which are overseen by Roshni. As of March 2013, the foundation, set up in 1994, had invested about Rs 1,800 crore.- Business Standard