Kerala’s KIMS Group opens hospital in UAE

Kerala-based KIMS Group, which has hospitals and clinics in other GCC countries and India, opened its first medical centre in the UAE over the weekend.

Officials said the group plans to open hospitals and polyclinics in various parts of the UAE.

The Kerala Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) group plans to double the number of hospital beds from 1,000 to 2,000 in the near future.

Elaborating on the group’s investment plans in the UAE, Dr M I Sahadulla, KIMS Group chairman, said the group plans to increase the number of beds either through greenfield projects or through acquisition of existing hospitals.

The KIMS Medical Centre in Deira, inaugurated on Thursday by the Indian Ambassador to the UAE M K Lokesh, targets middle class and lower middle class patients.

Negotiations are ongoing with two hospitals in Bangalore and Coimbatore and the group plans to go for an Initial Public Offering (IPO) of shares in four years’ time, he said.

“KIMS Medical Centre, Dubai is the seventh healthcare project of the KIMS group in the GCC region. Apart from the UAE, the group is present in Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia (Jubail and Riyadh),” said Dr Sahadulla.

The group’s entry into the UAE has come at the right time when rent  and other operational costs have dropped to reasonable levels, he said.

“We were waiting for the right time to start operations in the UAE,” he said.

The KIMS Group, promoted by a group of non-resident Indians from the UAE and other Gulf countries, has a 650-bed quaternary care hospital in the Kerala capital of Thiruvananthapuram.
 

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