RG Stone Hospitals plans big expansion

RG Stone Urology and Laparoscopy Hospitals plans to expand to 25 centres in two-and-a-half years, Hanish Bansal, Executive Director, said.

The Delhi-based hospital chain, which achieved a turnover of Rs.110 crore last year and hopes to achieve Rs.130-135 crore this year, is trying to garner the third round of funding for its expansion plans. Bansal told Business Line that it intends to raise Rs.100 crore by September this year.

Growth story

The chain, which was just three-centres-strong till 2005, is now present in seven cities with 15 hospitals. The company is clocking 15-20 per cent annual growth. “We are very keen to expand in the South (Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad), where we are not present yet,” Bansal said. In Chennai, the company is already looking at tying up with some corporate hospitals to run the urology departments.

Other than South India, RG Stone hospitals are set to open new centres in Delhi-NCR (already has six centres), Kolkata (has two centres), Mumbai (has four centres) and the North-East. Each new hospital requires an approximate investment of Rs.9 crore and takes about six months to set up, Bansal said.

Some outreach or satellite centres would also be started by the super-specialty hospital chain in tier II and III cities. “In two years, we could open about 10-15 satellite centres since the infrastructure cost is low.”

Besides constructing brand new facilities, the hospital is depending on other modes of expansion, such as taking charge of the urology department in existing multi-speciality hospitals and acquiring the practices of independent doctors.

Sub-specialities

More sub-specialities are also being added at RG Stone Hospitals, such as female urology, male infertility, bariatric surgery and laparoscopic gynaecology.

Bansal hopes to more than double RG Stone’s turnover following the latest round of expansion. “We hope to have a turnover of Rs.300 crore three years from now,” he said.