IHH seeks larger Fortis stake, 10,000 bed capacity in India as it expands global reach

[DELHI] IHH Healthcare is ramping up the expansion of its Indian healthcare business Fortis Healthcare, with the aim to nearly double the Indian hospital operator’s capacity to about 10,000 beds by 2030.

Fortis currently operates at a capacity of about 6,100 beds across 36 facilities in India.

According to Fortis’ managing director and chief executive Dr Ashutosh Raghuvanshi, the expansion strategy relies on a two-pronged approach.

Fortis will expand its existing hospital capacity to about 7,500 beds, while the remaining new beds will come from building new hospitals or potential mergers and acquisitions.

Parallel to the operational scale-up, IHH also plans to increase its stake in Fortis to at least 51 per cent “in the next few years”, according to Ashok Pandit, IHH’s chief corporate officer.

The Malaysian-listed healthcare group currently owns 31.1 per cent of Fortis, having acquired the controlling stake in 2018.

The Indian market remains significantly underserved despite rapid investment by private hospital operators, with shortages persisting even in major metropolitan areas, said Dr Raghuvanshi during a media briefing in Delhi in early August.

“The addressable market is very significant,” he said. “Public healthcare is not able to take care of all the people.”

“While the ability of people to access healthcare economically has improved, there is a shortage of beds, and that makes it a great opportunity,” he added.

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Ritu Garg, Fortis’ chief of growth and innovation, pointed to expanding insurance coverage as a key demand catalyst.

She said about 28 per cent of Indian patients, typically small business owners and shopkeepers, are not covered by either government healthcare schemes or employer-provided insurance.

Accordingly, rising demand for retail insurance in this segment is turning more patients towards private healthcare.

To support the growth trajectory, Fortis will deploy about seven billion rupees (US$73.3 million) in 2026 to add 400 beds to its existing hospitals.

The company plans to maintain this level of annual capital expenditure over the next three to four years to add about 400 beds each year through brownfield expansion, while greenfield expansion and potential acquisitions would come on top of this.

Most of that spending can be funded through internal cash generation, considering the company’s healthy balance sheet, he said.

Its current debt-to-Ebitda ratio stands at a “slightly conservative” 1.08 times, but Dr Raghuvanshi said that the company could take on debt amounting to as much as 2.5 times Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) if necessary.

“If there were a large acquisition, then perhaps additional equity would be required,” he added.

Global growth

India remains behind IHH’s other major markets in revenue contribution, with Turkey and Europe as the group’s largest contributors in Q1 2026, followed by Singapore, Malaysia and India.

But Dr Raghuvanshi said that India’s healthcare market offers substantial room for expansion for at least another decade.

Apart from the domestic patient market, he noted that medical tourism contributes about 8 per cent to Fortis’ revenue across its hospital network.

Fortis is particularly targeting patients from Africa, as the continent’s limited availability of advanced treatments and greater price sensitivity make India an attractive destination.

The company is targeting annual revenue growth of at least 15 per cent, while aiming to lift its Ebitda margin from around 23 per cent currently to about 25 per cent over the next few years.

In contrast to India’s growth market, however, IHH has opted to take more organic growth strategies in its mature markets, such as Malaysia and Singapore.

Pandit said that the group’s strategy in these markets will focus far more on ambulatory care centres, or outpatient medical facilities.

This shift comes as Malaysia’s government is pushing reforms for more affordable private healthcare insurance to combat rising medical inflation.

Meanwhile, there is a limited scope for hospital expansion in Singapore, where IHH is unlikely to receive licences for new hospitals, Pandit said.

He explained that the emphasis on ambulatory centres will allow the group to expand its care offerings without focusing solely on increasing bed capacity.

“Costs are lower, and what we charge patients also is lower, so it’s a win-win on both sides,” Pandit said.