Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd.

Apollo Hospitals, the country’s healthcare major is likely to invest around Rs 720 crore for adding 1,000 beds by the end of next fiscal. It has already raised the amount by share sale to qualified institutional buyers and through debt and internal accruals.

Currently, Apollo Hospitals has a capacity of over 8,500 beds across 54 hospitals within and outside India. The entity is facing some hurdles in adding more beds per year as there is an acute shortage of doctors and healthcare professionals in the country. To meet this challenge, it will be setting up three medical colleges.

The first college will open by this year or by next year and the next one will come up after two years. The Chennai headquartered healthcare chain is already running 11 nursing and hospital management colleges. It has 1,300 pharmacies and over 100 diagnostic clinics across the country.