KPJ Healthcare Berhad

KPJ eyes senior care business

Hospital operator weighing size of potential market

JOHOR BARU: Hospital operator KPJ Healthcare Bhd is expanding its senior care services to cater to growing demand at home. President and managing director Datuk Amiruddin Abdul Satar, however, said the group had yet to finalise its strategy in this potentially highgrowth area.

"We are still assessing the size of the potential market, while looking at the needs and the demand of the locals for senior living care facilities," he said when met after KPJ Healthcare's AGM here yesterday. Amiruddin said it was a matter of timing, as KPJ Healthcare had seen the prospect in the coming years.

"We hope to provide senior Living care within the next two to three years, as we will be sure of the size of the market and the extent of the service that we can offer to the market then."

He added that at the moment, the company was still finding the right concept that the market would be more receptive to, especially in Malaysia. Amiruddin said currently, KPJ Healthcare had one aged care facility in Queensland in Australia, as well as senior living care at the Tawakkal Health Centre along Jalan Pahang in Kuala Lumpur and the Sibu Geriatric Health and Nursing Centre in Sarawak,

For the last financial year ended Dec 31, 2014 (FY14), its aged care facility in Australia made steady progress to record a revenue growth of 5% to RM29.5mil from RM28mil.

On another matter, Amiruddin said the company was looking at a 10% revenue growth in FY15, riding on a steady momentum of double digit growth that the company has been experiencing for the past five years.

The healthcare arm of Johor Corp registered a 13% growth in revenue amounting to RM2.64bil as compared to RM2.33bil in 2013.

He said as more people opt for private hospitals, as well as medical insurance, the demand for private hospitals continues to be strong, creating more business opportunities for KPJ Healthcare.

Amiruddin said the company's focus would continue to be on the domestic market, with expansion most likely talcing place in Malaysia, where hospitals continue to be the
most significant revenue contributor, making up 90% of total revenue.- The Star