Singapore’s Thomson Medical likely to buy in Vietnam FV hospital

Thomson Medical Group, a Singapore-based healthcare company backed by tycoon Peter Lim, is in advanced talks to buy a controlling stake in French-backed FV Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, Bloomberg wrote Thursday.

The process is private, therefore people with knowledge of the matter asked Bloomberg not to name them while telling this to the international news services agency.

Thomson Medical is working with a financial adviser on the potential acquisition, the sources said.

Quadria Capital, an Asian healthcare-focused private equity firm, was exploring a sale of its stake in FV Hospital, which could fetch around $300 million to $400 million in a deal, Bloomberg reported in 2022. Other owners of FV Hospital, including its co-founder and CEO doctor Jean-Marcel Guillon, may tag along and sell part or all of their stakes, people familiar with the matter said at the time.

Discussions are currently ongoing and Quadria and Thomson Medical could still decide against a transaction, the people said. Bloomberg said a spokesperson for Thomson Medical declined to comment, while representatives for FV Hospital and Quadria did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Located in HCMC’s District 7, FV Hospital was founded by French medical doctor Guillon and a group of French doctors two decades ago. It opened in 2003 as one of Vietnam’s first private hospitals offering treatment quality of international standards. It is a 220-bed general hospital with around 950 staff members, and its patients include Vietnamese, foreigners living in the country, and ones from Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar, according to its website.

In 2017, Quadria Capital announced it bought a stake in FV Hospital for an undisclosed amount. Other investors who joined the investment include funds managed by Neuberger Berman Private Equity and DEG - the German development finance institution under KfW, a German state-owned investment and development bank.