UAE’s Aster DM Healthcare eyeing opportunities in Saudi Arabia: CEO

United Arab Emirates-based healthcare group Aster DM Healthcare is seeking potential acquisitions in the Saudi market, despite previously facing payment delays in the Kingdom, Reuters reported, citing managing director Azad Moopen.

Aster – which operates hospitals, clinics, and pharmacies in the GCC and India – is keen on expanding in Saudi Arabia because of the size of the market, and ownership rules that would let the group own up to 100 percent of a business, Moopen said.

“We consider Saudi a good market despite payment difficulties which we had there,” he added.

Aster’s payment issues were related to its 250-bed Sanad Hospital in Riyadh, the group’s only facility in the Kingdom.

The Dubai-based company was owed about $150 million from the Saudi health ministry, Moopen said, adding that payments were overdue for nearly two years, and were not made during the whole of 2016.

Many companies operating in Saudi Arabia, particularly in the construction sector, have faced payment delays as the oil-rich Kingdom’s revenues slumped in the wake of low crude prices.

However, almost half the amount the Saudi government owes to Aster has been repaid this year, Moopen said.

The health ministry had asked for a discount on the total debt, which the company agreed to, he added, without giving further details.

Meanwhile, Aster also has a hospital in Qatar, which has received regulatory approvals and started functioning, but is yet to be officially inaugurated.

Commenting on the diplomatic crisis between Qatar and its GCC neighbors, Moopen said Aster would wait “for the prevailing situation to crystallize for the official launch.”