Bengaluru, July 27 (IANS) Japanese trading firm Mitsui & Co invested $101 million (Rs 679 crore) in the city-based corporate hospital Columbia Asia, its US-based healthcare promoter announced on Wednesday.
"We will use Mitsui investment to expand our hospital network across Asia, fund development projects and open a multi-specialty clinic at Nairobi in Kenya under Columbia Africa brand," said the Seattle-based holding firm, Columbia Pacific Management, in a statement here.
The investment also makes Mitsui join the Columbia Asia board with two Directors to play a role in its operations.
With 27 hospitals and one clinic each in India, Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia, Columbia healthcare firm serves Asia's rapidly-growing middle class with multi-specialty hospitals located close to where patients live and work.
"Columbia Asia had forayed into new markets the world over since two decades to set up quality hospitals for meeting the needs of the emerging middle class," said Mitsui's healthcare Chief Operating Officer Koji Nagatomi in the statement.
As a major healthcare investor in Asia, Tokyo-based Mitsui sees huge growth potential in the Columbia Asia platform, which is present in many countries with a chain of super-specialty hospitals.
"Columbia has a firm presence in countries where healthcare spending and insurance coverage are going up at a rapid pace, positioning it well for the future," said Nagatomi on the occasion.
The 20-year-old Columbia Asia serves 2.5 million patients a year with 2,200 beds in 27 hospitals and employs 10,000 people.
"We will partner with Mitsui and share its expertise in healthcare and other business operations in 65 countries across continents," said Columbia Asia's Managing Director Nate McLemore in the statement.
With locations in China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam, Columbia Pacific Management provides healthcare and senior care services in markets making up half the world's population.
"All of these countries have aging populations, rising middle-and-upper-middle class populations, an under-supply of quality healthcare and senior care facilities, besides increasing rates of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, cancer and cardiac diseases, creating an unprecedented demand for world-class healthcare services and senior housing," the statement added.
As a diversified and trading, investment and service enterprise, with 138 offices in 65 countries, and 420 subsidiaries and associated firms worldwide, Mitsui business spans product sales, worldwide logistics and financing.
