Asian healthcare provider Columbia Pacific Management is partnering with Temasek, an investment company based in Singapore, on a joint venture that will provide China’s growing middle-class population with affordable, patient-centred care across healthcare and senior services.
Temasek is investing about USD250 million in Columbia China, the China healthcare arm of Seattle’s Columbia Pacific Management, which will result in a 50/50 joint venture with Columbia Pacific.
Columbia China currently has a 220-bed orthopaedic hospital, two multi-specialty clinics and three senior living facilities in Shanghai and Beijing. The company is also developing three multi-specialty hospitals of 300-500 beds, in Wuxi, Jiaxing and Changzhou, as well as a 300-bed senior living facility in Ningbo and a growing pipeline of other projects across China.
The partnership with Temasek will enable Columbia China to further expand in China through acquisitions and greenfield projects.
“We’ve already built a strong team in China that has quickly expanded since we first entered the China market five years ago,” says Bee Lan Tan, group CEO of Columbia China. “With such valued support from Temasek, we look forward to continuing to accelerate our growth.”
“China’s demand for healthcare services and senior living at international standards is unprecedented and growing every day,” says Nate McLemore, managing director of Columbia Pacific Management. “We are thrilled to have a partner like Temasek that has both a shared vision of providing high quality healthcare to Chinese patients and seniors, as well as a long track record of successful investments in China and around the world.”
Columbia Pacific Management has been operating in Asia for 20 years. The company's expansion in China is similar to the network of hospitals the company owns in India and Southeast Asia through another affiliate, Columbia Asia.
Columbia Asia opened its first hospital in Malaysia in 1996 and over two decades has developed one of the largest hospital companies in Asia, with 27 hospitals and two clinics delivering affordable and standardised care.
In 2011 Columbia Pacific became the first foreign-owned company to receive permission from the Chinese government to build senior care facilities in China.
Columbia Pacific is focusing on large cities – the three hospitals of 300-500 beds under development are in Wuxi (6.4 million), Jiaxing (4.5 million) and Changzhou (4.6 million) – with facilities designed to serve the wide-ranging medical needs of China’s fast-growing middle class.
