Fullerton Healthcare expands in China on 800m yuan investment

Singapore

FULLERTON Healthcare Corporation announced on Tuesday that Ping An Capital, together with related parties, has led an investment of more than 800 million yuan (S$163 million) in the company, effectively becoming its second-largest shareholder.

The provider of corporate healthcare solutions said that the partnership offered a platform for the business to offer "quality healthcare that is affordable and accessible in China", expanding its presence in the growing Chinese enterprise healthcare market.

To start, Fullerton Health plans to establish approximately 100 clinics in major cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

Liu Dong, the principal partner of Ping An Capital, said the investment will pave the way for Fullerton Health to adapt its business model in mainland China.

In addition to capital investment, Fullerton Health will also leverage healthcare resources from Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China to boost its business expansion.

Ping An of China is the controlling shareholder of Ping An Capital, which is its core equity investment platform.

Ping An of China became the world's largest insurer by market value this year. Its life and health insurance new business value grew 46.2 per cent year-on-year to nearly 38.5 billion yuan in the first half of 2017. As of May 2017, its Ping An Good Doctor online platform provided health management services to 160 million Chinese users.

Michael Tan, co-founder and group CEO of Fullerton Health, said: "With the deepening of China's healthcare reform, there is no better time for Fullerton Health to expand into the Chinese market."

Although China's private healthcare market is still in its early stages of development, he believes that it has "great potential" due to the country's rapid economic growth, favourable demographic changes, and low penetration rate of the existing enterprise healthcare service market.

Fullerton Health owns over 260 medical centres in seven countries and currently serves over 25,000 companies.

It shelved its mainboard initial public offering on the Singapore Exchange last year, citing market uncertainty.