Aster DM Healthcare eyes listing in Dubai or London, founder says

UAE-based firm started trading on the Bombay Stock Exchange in 2018

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - JANUARY 13:  Dr Azad Moopen, MD, the chairman and founder of  DM Healthcare UAE and Malabar Institute of Medical Sciences Ltd (MIMS), India, speaking to a reporter at the Med Care hospital, in Dubai on January 13, 2010.  (Randi Sokoloff / The National)  For Business story by David George-Cosh *** Local Caption ***  RS009-011310-MOOPEN.jpg
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Aster DM Healthcare, a Dubai-based operator of hospitals, clinics and a pharmacy chain is mulling a second listing, potentially in London or Dubai, after its 2018 initial public offering in India.

"The company will take a decision later to seek listing on other exchanges like London or Dubai," Dr Azad Moopen, founding chairman and managing director of Aster DM Healthcare, told The National in an emailed statement.

“These are opportunities that the company is considering, in future, following the listing on Bombay Stock Exchange in February 2018,” he added, without giving a timeframe for when the dual-listing could take place.

Capital markets regulator the Securities and Exchange Board of India is considering permitting dual public listings of companies in India and a second market at the same time, and already “without much effort a company listed in India can also be listed in another market”, Mr Moopen said.

Aster DM operates a network of more than 19 hospitals, 101 clinics and 207 retail pharmacies across the Middle East, India and Asia, according to its website. It aims to expand its operations further with new hospitals planned to open in Abu Dhabi, and its third hospital in Oman in the fourth quarter of 2019.

Healthcare providers in the Arabian Gulf are expanding as population increases and the cost of treatment edges higher. GCC expenditure on health care is forecast to rise to $104.6 billion (Dh384.1bn) in 2022 from $76.1bn in 2017, rising at a compound annual growth rate of 6.6 per cent, Dubai investment bank Alpen Capital’s said in a report last year.

If Aster DM cross lists its shares on LSE, it would be the latest healthcare operator to do so, following the listing of NMC Health.

Another Abu Dhabi-based brand, VPS Healthcare, was in IPO talks last year with a view to listing in London. It appointed Rothschild as its IPO advisor last May although the company has yet to announce when a listing would take place.