Dr Satit Viddayakorn, managing director and chairman of the executive committee of publicly-held Principal Capital Plc, admitted on Wednesday he personally entered into a deal to acquire 90.56 million shares of Bumrungrad Hospital (BH) at 103 baht apiece, worth a combined 9.32 billion baht, from Bangkok Dusit Medical Services (BDMS).
He said he is also interested in acquiring the remaining 11.34% of BH stake held by BDMS, a company that like Principal Capital Plc is listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET).
“The acquisition is a friendly deal and for the purpose of real investment,” he said. “And we are confident in BH’s growth potential.”
BDMS, Thailand’s largest private hospital network, announced on Tuesday it would sell all its ordinary shares in SET-listed BH, one of the country’s leading private hospital operators. The 180.7 million shares represent 22.71% of total ownership in an 18.6-billion-baht deal.
However, Dr Satit insisted his personal investment has nothing to do with Principal Capital Plc and the cooperation between his company and BH will remain unchanged.
Principal Capital has cooperated with Bumrungrad Health Network to set up centres of excellence such as Absolute Spine Care Centre and Joint Surgery Center at Princ Hospital Suvarnabhumi to provide services to clients in Samut Prakan and eastern Bangkok.
Principal Capital itself is also proceeding with plans to expand its medical holdings to 20 hospital chains and 100 clinics nationwide over the next two years, he said.
So far, the company has a network of 11 hospital chains in 10 provinces, including Samut Prakan, Nakhon Sawan, Uthai Thani and Phitsanulok.
In fact, Mr Satit has long been very close to BDMS. His father, Pongsak Viddayakorn, cofounded BDMS with Prasert Prasarttong-Osoth.
In 2012, Dr Pongsak sold his Bangkok Dusit shares to build a property portfolio through listed company Principal Capital, overseen by his son Satit.