Materia Medica Malaysiana

Sime to keep SJMC

Sime Darby Bhd has now decided to keep its healthcare operations with expansion plans for this business following the failure to sell its subsidiary Subang Jaya Medical Centre Sdn Bhd (SJMC) early this year.

As part of its initial expansion plans, SJMC will invest some RM8 million to build a nuclear medicine centre, which will be completed by the end of next year.

“With the nuclear medicine centre, SJMC will become a complete tertiary healthcare hospital,” SJMC executive director Dr Jacob Thomas tells FinancialDaily yesterday.

Besides the nuclear medicine centre, SJMC has recently built a RM15 million Cancer Treatment Centre in Subang Jaya, Thomas says, adding that the new facility will be located next to the cancer treatment centre.

In March, Sime Darby announced plans to sell SJMC by way of a bidding process. However, the disposal was aborted as it was learnt that the conglomerate failed to get the price it wanted.

It was learnt that the asking price was at least RM200 million but the bidders, including Pantai Holdings Bhd and Singapore Raffles Medical Group, were offering between RM150 million and RM180 million.

Sime Darby had earlier said its intention to dispose of SJMC was to free capital not directly related to its core businesses.

On this case, Thomas says: “We decided to keep the hospital and healthcare is going to be a core business of the group.”
SJMC will be able to provide a wide range of specialised medical treatment, including intervention radiology, with the new facility that is part of the company’s master plan to upgrade its services, Thomas adds.

“Sime Darby, our parent company, has been supportive (of our upgrading progamme),” he says.

Earlier today, SJMC signed a memorandum of understanding with AD-MACS Corporate Consultants (M) Sdn Bhd to implement an automated customer satisfaction gauging system.

The system allows SJMC to process and systematically measure the level of its customer satisfaction based on their feedback.

On the healthcare industry outlook, Thomas is confident that it has “excellent opportunity” in Malaysia with the development of health-related tourism given its low cost for medical treatment.

“We are (offering) half of the cost (for treatment) that of some of our neighbouring countries,” he says.
Asked about SJMC’s growth prospects, Thomas says it is “doing well” and “growing at a steady pace”.

SJMC, Sime Darby’s only investment in the healthcare industry, posted a net profit of RM6.7 million in the financial year ended June 30, 2002.