Middle East Healthcare plans to expand within Saudi Arabia

Middle East Healthcare Co. (MEAHCO), which is set to sell shares in an initial public offering next month, has revealed plans to expand within Saudi Arabia over the next three years, the company said in a statement.

As many as 85 hospital beds will be added to Saudi German Hospital branches in the kingdom, including 32 in Jeddah, 30 in Riyadh and 23 in Madinah.

The company also plans to open 62 outpatient clinics in Jeddah and Aseer. It’s also studying the possibility of expanding existing clinics in Jeddah and Riyadh, without impacting operations at the facilities.

In addition, MEAHCO intends to build new hospital complexes in Hail and Dammam at an estimated cost of SAR 530.5 million.

Saudi-German Hospital’s Hail branch is set to start operations within the second quarter of this year, as almost 61 percent of the project has been completed. No launch date was announced for its Dammam facility.

MEAHCO currently owns four hospitals in the country, providing a total capacity of 788 beds.

The healthcare firm’s IPO will take place between March 3 and March 9, 2015, once a book-building process is completed.

On Sunday, MEAHCO released a prospectus for the upcoming IPO. Up to 27.61 million shares, or 100 percent of the floated shares, will be offered to institutional investors in the first round. However, the lead manager reserves the right to reduce this percentage to 60 percent, or 19.33 million sharesafter obtaining an approval from the Capital Market Authority (CMA), Saudi Arabia’s market regulator.