Eye-Q to invest Rs 160 cr investment to open 80 more hospitals

Super-speciality eye-care chain Eye-Q will invest Rs 160 crore to open 80 new hospitals by the end of December 2015 as it looks to expand its presence across India.

Eye-Q, which currently operates 20 super speciality eye hospitals, is planning to open the new hospitals in tier II and tier III towns such as Meerut, Kanpur, Unnao, Jhansi,

Dehradun and Sonepat.

"We will be investing Rs 160 crore to open 80 hospitals by the end of 2015 across towns in Northern and Western India," Eye-Q CEO and Managing Director Rajat Goel said.

The company said it will incur an average cost of about Rs 2-3 crore to set up a super-speciality eye hospital.

On being asked how the eye care provider plans to raise the finances for the expansion Goel said: "The money would be raised through banks, private equity and internal accruals."

The company has already had funding from private equity players, he added.

"As part of growth strategy, our focus is on the district headquarters towns. We plan to open the hospitals there as our focus is to provide advanced eye care medical services at affordable prices," Goel said.

When asked about competition, he said: "There is a huge need for organised eye-care in these towns. Even across the country at present, the organised eye care segment (share) is pegged between 2.5 to 3 per cent."

At present, Eye-Q hospitals offers a full range of medical and surgical eye care and optical services to patients of all ages across all its super-speciality hospitals.

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