Perennial to invest one billion yuan to open two hospitals in Guangzhou

Integrated healthcare and real estate player Perennial Holdings on Tuesday (May 27) announced that it has entered into an agreement with Guangzhou Metro Group to establish a tertiary general hospital in Guangzhou, China.

This will be Perennial’s second wholly foreign-owned hospital in China, after it opened the 500-bed Perennial General Hospital Tianjin earlier this year.

It will also be opening a specialist hospital, which will not be wholly foreign-owned. A spokesperson from Perennial told The Business Times that it may partner a specialist medical group to establish the specialist hospital.

Under the agreement, the Singapore-based group will lease around 105,000 square metres in the south-east tower of Yuesheng Plaza, adjacent to the Baiyun high-speed railway (HSR) station, and invest around one billion yuan (S$178.9 million) to establish the two healthcare institutions.

The two Guangzhou facilities will have a total planned capacity of more than 600 beds.

The two will use a shared medical facilities and services concept, allowing doctors and medical groups to focus on providing medical consultations and treatments without investing in medical facilities and services.

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The shared medical platform will be provided and managed by Perennial, and will include facilities such as a clinical laboratory and advanced operating theatres. This concept is also being used in Perennial’s Tianjin hospital.

“The model has been proven to offer convenience and cost efficiency to doctors and medical groups, allowing them to grow and scale their practices across Perennial’s healthcare-centric HSR transit-oriented developments,” said the group.

The spokesperson told BT: “We also have some specialist medical groups (that) are keen to be co-located with us to leverage our shared medical platform and our extensive network of patients and doctors of various medical disciplines.”

Work on the Guangzhou hospitals is expected to commence in July 2025 and be completed within one year.

Pua Seck Guan, executive chair and chief executive of Perennial, noted: “Guangzhou is a destination of choice for medical care. Our hospitals’ strategic location in Guangzhou Baiyun’s city centre and their proximity to the Baiyun HSR station provide access to a population catchment of over 100 million across the Greater Bay Area.”

These hospitals come after China announced that it would permit wholly foreign-owned hospitals to be set up in nine trial regions – Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Nanjing, Suzhou, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hainan – aimed at diversifying medical services for locals and foreigners.