Malar Hospitals-Hameed-26jul2k5

Market Buzz:
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Malar Hospitals-Providing Quality Medicare
BSE: 523696. CMP Rs 18.55 BUY (Not applicable for day traders)

Medicare is turning out to be the single biggest sector where supply shortfall in services is apparent. That, if you were to ignore, the most famous trio of power, water and housing. So it is not without reason, that hospitals which provide a back to back arrangement with insurers would endear themselves to investors and invite fresh investments as well.
Look at recent forays of Escorts, Fortis, Max-Devki, Wockhardt and Apollo Group and the valuations that listed medicare stocks like Kovai, Indraprastha Apollo and Apollo Hospitals, and one wonders why Malar trails?
Well, if the grapevine is to be believed, all this will change for Malar soon. Large investors are believed to be interested in the project and positive news flow is on the cards.
To put it in perspective, Malar is already owned by strong hands. While the promoter Ramamurthy family owns 29.7 per cent of the Rs 13.9 crore equity. SPIC owns 4.3 per cent, Tamil Actor Superstar Rajnikanth owns 1.08 per cent, and Malaysian Haneda Cosmo Pro owns over 11 per cent. Mutual Funds trail with a 2 per cent holding while the public at large owns the balance.
Set up in March 1992, this 250 bed Multi-Specialty hospital located at Adyar in the heart of this Southern port city has carried out yeomen service in the past 13 years.
Strong on the Cardio Segment
Malar is a leading name in the field of Heart surgeries, having performed as many as 1750 bypass surgeries in the past 4 years, with a 99.5 per cent success ratio. It also has to its credit, as being one of the 3 hospitals in the World which have carried out Auto Graft Stenting. This institution possesses a modern cardiac catheterisation lab with the Digital Substractive Angiogram facility in India.
In addition to cardiac care, Malar is also well regarded as a major Renal Transplant Centre in India having completed over 600 transplants successfully. The Adyar facility is also considered a Centre of Excellence for Neurosurgery, Oto-Laryngology, Limb reconstruction surgery and maxillo facial orthodontology. The hospital can carry out dedicated mammography, whole body tomography with 3D imaging and bone mineral studies, Digital brain mapping and gamma cameras with spects.
Large clientele
The Malar hospital not only caters to patients from within and around Chennai, it has drawn clientele from other States in South India, South East Asia and Middle East as well. The major advantage that goes in favour of Malar is its recognition by all Indian medical insurance companies and being one of the two hospitals recognised by BUPA Insurance company, UK, as a quality provider of healthcare facilities.
Also one must not forget that a 250 bed Multi Speciality Hospital would cost atleast Rs 175 crore in any other location, while Malar fetches a market capitalisation of a mere Rs 24 crore. If the existing promoters cannot get going from here on, this hospital could get acquired in future. Thus Malar may turn out to be a high risk-high return Equity investment.