Singaporean group acquires FV Hospital in HCMC, targets Southeast Asia expansion

The purchase, which marks the biggest deal in the history of Vietnam’s healthcare sector, helps the Singaporean company access Vietnam’s developing market and its abundant resources of talent, Thomson Medical Group executive vice chairman Kiat Lim said at an event Thursday morning.

CEO of the firm Melvin Heng, who directly examined 20 hospitals before deciding to buy FV Hospital, said that Vietnam’s healthcare market was very diverse with a big gap in quality between facilities.

The gap, however, will narrow gradually and there will be increasing demand for high quality services, he said.

By purchasing FV Hospital, Thomson Medical Group is now present in the three most important locations in Southeast Asia (according to its criteria): Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam.

It now eyes making Vietnam the gateway to reach Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.

The staff of the FV Hospital will be kept the same, including Dr Jean-Marcel Guillon, the founder of the hospital, who has been training doctors and staff for the last two decades.

FV Hospital is the first wholly funded foreign hospital in Vietnam, which began operation in November 2003. It has 36 departments and over 200 hospitals.

It has 1,500 staff with 236 Vietnamese and foreign doctors.

The hospital, along with its additional facilities in HCMC, Hanoi and Da Nang City, serves 250,000 patients annually, with 25% among them foreigners who live in Vietnam.

The hospital posted a revenue of VND1.9 trillion in 2022, up 26% from 2021. Its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization rose 44% to VND450 billion.

Thomson Medical Group was established in 1979 and is among the biggest private healthcare groups for women and children in Singapore.