His mother’s brush with breast cancer in early 2013 affected him deeply, and Eng Aik Meng ran to different services as her caretaker. “The way patients get their [cancer treatment] was so disjointed. Why can’t we have everything together under one roof that makes it easy for the patient and the caregiver?” he tells The Edge Singapore. “This brought to light many of the challenges faced by patients and caregivers in the region in navigating complex healthcare systems during an emotionally trying time.”
With a new perspective on the healthcare business, he formed TE Asia Healthcare in 2014 with reportedly just two staff members. The mission? To make medical management more efficient, seamless and accessible for patients by establishing single-speciality hospitals and centres like those found in South Korea and Japan
Today, the firm has invested over US$250 million ($337 million) in 18 speciality hospitals and integrated healthcare facilities across Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines. TE Asia’s specialities are in oncology, cardiology and orthopaedics.
Eng, the co-founder and CEO of the Singapore-based company, says the healthcare space is ever-evolving and is just becoming more complex, especially for patients and caretakers. “We believe that establishing single-speciality hospitals would bring focus and help drive down costs and improve patient affordability.”
TE Asia is focused on solving problems for the patient, payer and doctor. For the patients, it wants to help them find the best possible outcome and care to solve their issues in a single location. As for the payer — be it the patient themselves or the insurance companies — Eng wants to ensure that the patients receive good care at the right price. That way, the patient’s care is not compromised, increasing accessibility to both patients and payers.
Then, there are the doctors, which Eng says are shareholders. The doctors that work in TE Asia’s hospitals are not just employees or independent contractors, as compared to those in general hospitals. He adds that the doctors in the single-speciality hospitals would have invested a certain amount of money and effort for the stake in the hospital. “This gives them a sense of ownership and say in how the hospital should run,” adding that the single-speciality hospitals will feature some of the latest and niche equipment not in the budget typically set aside in general hospitals.
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Eng adds: “We want to provide the doctors with the support they need to perform at their best. They typically don’t want to be burdened by non-clinical administrative work and want a good support ecosystem, in terms of hardware and software.”
Having doctors as stakeholders also ensures they can work together and have a vested interest in the operations. “The management team works closely with the doctors because they are our partners. They are making the hospital owners align their interests with the hospital, so it does well. The doctors are also exclusive to the hospital, with all the treatments being done in a single location. This model helps solve problems for all parties,” says Eng.
He compares TE Asia’s business model to a sushi restaurant, while general hospitals are the “buffet spreads”. He continues: “If you want everything under one roof, then you go for a buffet, but you may not get the best. We want to be the speciality sushi restaurant that focuses on what we do best and do well in it.”
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Funding growth
Eng says TE Asia has grown significantly and is profitable and doing well. He admits that this business is capital intensive: TE Asia, for instance, is backed by global investment firm TPG Capital. While the details of funding from TPG have not been disclosed, TE Asia has mentioned that in April 2021, some US$90 million will be spent to increase its footprint in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. This figure is on top of the US$170 million previously invested in the company’s growth.
Aside from providing monetary support for the company’s growth, Eng says TPG has also provided support in other meaningful ways. He adds: “TPG believes in our vision, and they are a major capital provider to us. They are our big supporters, as they also understand the market and region we operate in.”
Eng is a senior advisor for TPG, as his background in several different industries puts him in a great position to provide strategic direction and advice to several organisations — which includes being president of shipping giant American President Lines (APL) and chief operating officer of Fortis Healthcare.
Apart from TPG, TE Asia also has support from the Singapore family office Altrui Investment Management for its expansion into Indonesia. Last July, TE Asia and Altrui invested US$50 million in two medical projects in Jakarta, which specialise in cardiology.
Despite TE Asia’s funding from its backers, Eng claims that since the company is doing well, it is also reinvesting its profits to fund its growth. “We want our existing hospitals to be disciplined and fund the growth on their own with their profits.”
Finding the right fit
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Given the long-term growth trend of the healthcare sector, TE Asia is looking for more ways to expand, like introducing a new speciality hospital, but “with our expansion in Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia, we have got our hands quite full,” he says, adding that the demand for healthcare in the region has increased following the Covid-19 pandemic.
Many resources were diverted at the height of the pandemic, causing a backlog of patients seeking non-essential treatments and scans. The pandemic also made people more health conscious, but “now that the Covid-19 pandemic is tapering, the demand for the services in our hospitals has increased significantly.”
In April, TE Asia’s Solis Breast Care and Surgery Centre on Orchard Road assembled a full team of doctors and surgeons. Previously, Solis launched in October 2021 with only one doctor. Located at The Paragon, Solis is an ambulatory care centre with operating theatres and is the most extensive private breast care group practice in the city-state. “In Singapore, I think the breast centre is doing very well, but we want to ensure that it is in a much more steady position,” says Eng.
Three other upcoming projects will likely be launched within the next two years: A cardiac hospital in Penang, a cardiac hospital in Jakarta and a hospital in Kuala Lumpur that focuses on robotic and minimally invasive surgeries and cancer-related surgical conditions. “I think our focus for the next few years will be Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. But we are always exploring,” says Eng, adding that some criteria the company looks out for when entering a new market include the ease of hiring competent doctors and assembling a support team.
Ultimately, it is about “finding the right people” to drive the company’s growth within its existing hospitals. “When you have the right people in place and the right team, you know you have something quite powerful,” Eng says. “We are not hospital builders; we are building a system and a practice. And that is the most important thing.”
As for TE Asia, Eng says it does not expect more funding as it intends to reinvest its profits to fund its growth. When asked if a public listing is in the books, he adds: “We have not given it thought yet, and nothing is finalised. We are still in the process of growing the company.”
