Fortis Healthcare in talks to buy controlling stake in Vietnam’s Hoan My Medical Corp

SINGAPORE: Fortis Healthcare is in talks to buy a controlling stake in Hoan My Medical Corp, the Vietnamese hospital operator backed by Deutsche Bank AG, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Shareholders of privately held Hoan My plan to sell more than 50% of the company in a deal that may value it at about $100 million, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private.

The acquisition would bolster Fortis’s expansion in Asia, where the Economist Intelligence Unit forecasts healthcare spending per person will grow 55% between 2010 and 2015. Ho Chi Minh City-based Hoan My operates five hospitals and two clinics in Vietnam and plans to open more hospitals in the country, according to its website.

Fortis Healthcare is mulling acquisitions to expand globally, chairman Malvinder Singh said in September. Its holding company, Fortis Global Healthcare Holdings Pte, agreed to buy Hong Kong-based Quality HealthCare Asia Ltd for HK$1.5 billion ($192.5 million) in October, after withdrawing from a bidding war for Parkway Holdings Ltd, Asia’s largest hospital operator, in July 2010. The investment would enable Hoan My to focus on high-income patients.