Health Hopes

June 10, 2010 (LBO) – A new hospital in Sri Lanka's Asiri healthcare group is set to break-even and generate positive cashflows despite overshooting its construction budget by 20 percent, an official said. The Central hospital, which started operations two months ago and cost 5.5 billion to build, is generating enough cash flows to be expected to break even by next month, Ashok Pathirage, chairman of Asiri Hospital group and its key shareholder, Softlogic group said.

The initial plan was to build an eight-storey hospital complex for three billion rupees, but later the investment was upped to 4.5 billion with the addition of six floors, but it ended up costing 5.5 billion rupees to finish.

"The budget has gone up by a billion bucks (rupees)," Pathirage said. "Even though we have exceeded (the budget) we are happy with the outcome."

About 600 to 700 million rupees of money to be raised from a future public offer will go to retire 15 percent of the group's debt of four billion rupees, he said.

The new hospital has a strong existing of business built up at another location in Colombo, which was shifted to the new hospital as soon as it was ready. Pathirage said The Central Hospital will pri