KPJ to triple education revenue

The Edge Financial Daily, Tuesday, 26 July 2011

26-07-2011

PUTRAJAYA: KPJ Healthcare Bhd’s education arm has been granted university college status by the Higher Education Ministry, (MOHE), paving the way for the country’s leading healthcare group to become a major education player.

KPJ plans to invest RM12O million in the physical expansion of its education facilities and hopes to triple revenue from its education unit to RM100 million annually from RM3O million in 2010, after the completion of Phase 2 by end-2012. The education arm will now be known as KPJ International University College of Nursing and Health Sciences (KPJIUC).

"Phase 2 of the expansion of the university college in Nilai will cost RM5O million, to be completed by August 2012. Phase 3 will cost RM7O million and will start in 2013. "We hope to acquire the status of a full-fledged university by 2016," said Datin Siti Sa’diah Sheikh Bakir, managing director of KPJ, at the ceremony yesterday where Higher Education Minister Datuk Sen Mohamed Khaled Nordin handed over the certification.

Siti Sa’diah said she hopes the university college will become a regional higher education hub, adding that there are plans to open more campuses in Indonesia and Indochina. With the completion of Phase 2, KPJ’s revenue from education is expected to rise from over RM3O million in 2010.

"We expect to see a rise in revenue to a total of RM100 mulion per year from the university college," said Mohd Helmi Daud, operations manager of KPJIUC. This year, the education arm raked in higher revenue of RM4O million. The university college hopes to see a total enrolment of 5,000 students with the completion of Phase 2, double the current 2,500.

The ultimate aim of the university college is to have an enrolment of 10,000 local and foreign students by 2015. The awarding of the university college status allows KPJIUC to make available its own Bachelor’s, Master’s and PhD degrees, unlike previously when it had to partner with other universities.

KPJ has also received approval from the MOHE to establish a medical school offering Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) which it aims to start by September 2012. Siti Sa’diah also said KPJ is planning to open four new hospitals by 2013, increasing its number of hospitals from 20 at present.

These four are slated to be situated in Klarg, Selangor, Pasir Gudang and Muar, Johor, and in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, where its current facility will be moved to the new hospital. The hospital in Klang will cost RM14O million while the others will cost about RM7O million each. KPJ has two hospitals in Jakarta, Indonesia. KPJ’s education unit was started in 1991, when the nursing programme was set up as a means to facilitate the internal needs of the company’s hospitals.

The company is a member of the Johor Corp group of companies, and is listed on Bursa Malaysia’s list of Top 100 cornp ani es. KPJ recently won The Edge Billion Ringgit Club award for Best Performing Stock within the combined Trading! Services, Hotels, IPC and Technology sectors, with returns to shareholders of 55.1% annually over the past three years.