Metro Pacific completes buy of Makati Med stake

Metro Pacific Investments Corp., the Philippine unit of the Hong Kong conglomerate First Pacific Co. Ltd., has completed its acquisition of some 32.5 percent of Medical Doctors Inc., by buying P750 million in convertible notes issued by the company. The sale of the convertible notes enabled MDI, owner and operator of Makati Medical Center, to raise some P961 million as existing shareholders also participated in the sale. The convertible notes will be mandatorily converted to equity after five years. Carlito Soliman, Makati Med director for finance division, told reporters on Wednesday that the hospital will be using the proceeds of the convertible notes, including some internal funds, for the construction of a new building of the hospital and the rehabilitation of its equipment which will cost about P1.6 billion. "The building will have five-basement parking and seven storeys above the ground. It is scheduled to be completed in August 2008," Soliman said. The company was also be able to renegotiate for its P1.2-billion loan from a number of creditors. He said that Medical Doctors has been in default of paying the loan since 2004. "The new terms of the loan will give us a three-year grace period, wherein we will be paying some 10-percent as interest and the principal to be paid after that period in the span of five years," he said. The company's major creditors were the Development Bank of the Philippines, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. and the rest from Security Bank and Trust Co., Land Bank, Social Security System, City Savings Bank and an existing shareholder. The new building will also cater to medical tourism including health and wellness and aesthetic procedures. For the first four months of the year, Makati Med's net income shot up to P80 million from P23 million in the same period in 2006. In 2006, the company earned P223.12 million in profits, exponentially bigger than the P15.27 million it raked in in 2005. - GMANews.TV