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Frontier Lifeline Hospital is close to securing financial closure for the first phase of its Rs 900-crore medical science park, Frontier Mediville, that is coming up at Elavur Village, near Chennai.
The 250-300-acre science park will also have a 41-acre bio-medical special economic zone. Phase I, which is scheduled to be launched in the next few months, will have a clinical research and training centre in three acres, and would entail an investment of a little over Rs 150 crore.
While Frontier Lifeline and the promoter family will bring in Rs 25 crore, it has secured a soft loan of Rs 13 crore from the Central Government (through the Department of Biotechnology, the Department of Science and Technology and the Technology Development Board) and Rs 90 crore from State Bank of India and Bank of Baroda (each Rs 45 crore). “We are in the final stages of talks with a couple of PE players for the remaining,” said Dr K. M. Cherian, Promoter Chairman of Frontier Lifeline Hospitals.
Strategic partner
For Phases II (speciality hospital) and III (medical college, university and a general hospital with necessary infrastructure) the company is planning to rope in a strategic partner.
“We are willing to dilute up to 25-30 per cent equity in the project to a strategic partner who is serious about investing in such a project,” he said.
To a question on how the company is planning to raise funds for the remaining phases, Dr Cherian said the company is planning to lease out a part of the SEZ to bio-technology units willing to set up facilities there.
Even if the first two phases of the project and a portion of the third phase of development require 15 acres in the SEZ, “at least 25 acres will be available for prospective players in the sector to set up units there”.
Besides, Frontier Lifeline is also willing to commercialise some of its self-developed technologies for manufacturing various products, such as tissue-engineered bovine jugular vein valves and porcine blood vessel valves through transfer of technology.
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