T

he Ciputra Group, which is known for large-scale residential and commercial development projects, plans to expand its business by building up to 15 hospitals in the next five years.

Tulus Santoso, director of PT Ciputra Development Tbk., which is one of three Ciputra Group’s sub-holding companies along with PT Ciputra Surya Tbk. and PT Ciputra Property, said that Ciputra had already built a hospital in one of its integrated city projects, Citra Raya Tangerang in Banten.

“We will launch Ciputra Hospital on Oct. 29. After that, we will enter the hospital business seriously. We hope to have 10 to 15 hospitals in five years,” Tulus said Thursday during a press conference on the group’s 30th anniversary.

Tulus said that Ciputra would only build hospitals inside its own projects, particularly residential complexes.

“We want to facilitate the residents and synergize with our projects nationwide. If we build hospitals in new places, it would take a long time,” he said.

Currently, he said, the group was surveying its residential projects in Jakarta, Makassar, Palembang, Manado and Surabaya to host the next hospitals. Hospitals will be built in two or three cities next year, after which Ciputra plans to build two or three hospitals per year.

He said that Ciputra would also set up an organization to independently run the hospitals, including providing health workers.

“However, they will be local health workers. If the hospital is in Surabaya, the health workers will also come from Surabaya. Moreover, the doctors will be our partners, not our employees. They will practice only in our hospitals,” Tulus said.

He revealed that Ciputra would need Rp 100 billion (US$11.27 million) to Rp 200 billion to build each hospital, with Ciputra relying on internal funds and bank loans.

He estimated that at least 10 Ciputra hospitals would contribute around 10 to 20 percent of Ciputra Group’s total revenue. As of September, the Ciputra Group had booked total sales of Rp 3.143 trillion.

Despite the plan to build hospitals, the group will maintain residential and commercial property development as its core business, Ciputra Group managing director Candra Ciputra said.

“We will expand to residential and commercial development massively in Jakarta and outside Jakarta. Because, we believe the property business is still booming,” he said.

“Currently, we run about 50 projects at the same time. We predict that we will be able to run 100 projects simultaneously in three years,” Candra said.

With various projects at a time, Tulus said Ciputra planned to set capital expenditure at Rp 2 trillion in 2012.

“Half of the funds will be channeled to the construction of Ciputra World, which is under the Ciputra Property and scheduled for completion at the end of next year. Meanwhile, Ciputra Development and Ciputra Surya will get Rp 500 billion each,” Tulus said.

Ciputra also has property projects in Hanoi, Phnom Penh and Shenyang. “We consider economic growth, city potentials, political conditions and population size when planning for a new project abroad,” said managing director Budiarsa Sastrawinata said. (rcf)