Lombard invests in private health care in the Philippines

The Medical City, a Philippine hospital, has received an investment from San Francisco-based Lombard Investments.

Lombard Investments, a San Francisco-based private equity firm, has acquired 18 percent of Professional Services, the owner and operator of The Medical City, a private tertiary-care hospital in the Philippines.

The investment was made through the firm’s South East Asia and Greater China private equity fund, Lombard Asia III. The purchase price was not disclosed.

The Medical City’s facilities include a 500 bed hospital complex (soon to be expanded to 750 beds) and 280 medical clinics.  

Professional Services is headed by Alfredo Bengzon, a former Secretary of Health for the Philippines and Dean of the Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health. In February 2007 the hospital acquired the Joint Commission International Accreditation, the most widely recognized international healthcare certificate.  The Medical City is one of only two hospitals in the Philippines to receive that certification.

Pote Videt, Managing Director of Lombard Investments, said “The Medical City is well-positioned to benefit from the strong domestic demand for private healthcare as well as a growing international medical tourism industry.”

Based in San Francisco, Lombard also has offices in Bangkok and Hong Kong.  Formed in 1985, Lombard has made more than 75 controlling and minority investments in Asia and North America.  The firm’s investors include financial institutions, major pension funds and corporations, as well as family investment offices in Asia, North America and Europe. Lombard made its investment in PSI through Lombard Asia III, the firm’s South East Asia and Greater China private equity fund.

The Medical City investment closely follows the firm’s February investment of $18.9 million in Krungthep Land Public Company in Thailand, a privately held mid-sized residential home builder.  Lombard took a 20.2 percent equity interest in the Company.