UAE businessman Essa Al Ghurair preparing to sell health care stake in 2018

Dubai: UAE businessman Essa Al Ghurair plans to sell a 30 per cent stake in his health care business in three years’ time to fund its expansion into Africa, he said.

The business currently comprises one hospital and 10 clinics, all in the UAE, and Al Ghurair is the latest Gulf businessman to look to Africa’s fast-growing economies for expansion. He did not say which countries he was looking at.

The next two years will be spent preparing the company, Prime Hospitals and Clinics, for the stake sale, Al Ghurair said this week.

A sale is “one way of growing the business, so at least you can bring someone from outside to give you a bit of direction, for funding requirements to grow the business,” he said.

“I have ambitions to go to Africa for health care, but I have to create a model that will work. It takes time to build this model, and I’m working on this,” he added, without elaborating.

The Gulf Arab region’s fast-growing health care sector is drawing investor attention as lifestyle-related diseases increase among its wealthy populations.

Abu Dhabi-based Al Noor Hospitals is currently courting takeover bids from UAE-based VPS Healthcare and South Africa’s Mediclinic International.

Expanding offerings

NMC Health, which pulled a bid for Al Noor this month, announced on Tuesday it would spend $189 million (Dh694 million) on a 51 per cent stake in UAE-based fertility clinic operator Fakih IVF Group, while Saudi Arabia’s Al Borg Medical Laboratories is considering selling a 49 per cent stake of its company.

Al Ghurair, whose Essa Al Ghurair Investments covers the health care and food sectors, said the activity in the sector is a signal of its development, with health care providers becoming more sophisticated and expanding their offerings.

“If there’s more health care providers, they won’t just cater themselves, but the region and Africa,” Al Ghurair said.

“Some hospitals will create a niche market for them to invest in equipment and cater to that sector of the disease. Now the industry is more general, but later it will be more specific in nature.”