A patient is wheeled into a hospital room in Nanning, Guangxi Province, on Nov. 27, 2014. (Photo : Getty Images)
Real estate giant Dalian Wanda Group Co. is setting its sights on China’s healthcare sector with a 15 billion yuan ($2.3 billion) investment in three hospitals in the country.
Wanda, led by Asia's richest man Wang Jianlin, has partnered with the U.K. firm International Hospitals Group (IHG) for hospitals in Shanghai, Chengdu and Qingdao, according to a report from China Daily published on Thursday.
The hospital in Qingdao, located on eastern China's Shandong Province, is the slated to be the first to open in July 2018, while the other two will start construction this year, the report said.
Of the three, the Shanghai hospital will be the biggest, with 1,000 beds and an investment of 8 billion yuan.
The hospitals will provide "international hospital standard care" and will be overseen by IHG.
"Wanda is looking to bring top international hospitals to China to cater to the high-tech healthcare demand in cities," said Wang.
The partnership with Wanda will help IHG enter China's lucrative healthcare market, said Chester King, chairman of IHG's Asian branch. The Birmingham-based firm currently manages 450 healthcare programs across 50 countries.
Other high-end foreign hospitals have also shown interest over the Chinese healthcare industry.
The past year, local government officials of Guangdong Province announced that the U.S.-based Massachusetts General Hospital will manage a 500-bed hospital in the province that would open by 2018.
Mayo Clinic, another leading U.S. healthcare group, has also established its presence in China through a joint venture with Hillhouse Capital Group.
It is the best time for private capital to flow into the Chinese healthcare sector as the government has announced several favorable policies for the sector, said Zheng Jiabao, an analysts with the Shenzhen-based consultancy Qianzhan Industry Research Institute.
