Chennai: The Rs150-crore revenue clinical diagnostic company Metropolis Health Services (I) Limited plans to go global.

The overseas growth will be fuelled by organic growth and through mergers and alliances.
The company is in talks with a UK-based diagnostic chain for an outright buyout. In addition Metropolis is planning to expand its Middle East presence and establish presence in Thailand and the US markets, said Dr G S K Velu, managing director.

Speaking about the company''s US plans he says, it takes something up to 20 days to get a clinical test report. In India it takes at best three days and that presents a growth opportunity to the Indian diagnostics firm.

"There is an outsourcing opportunity here as our turnaround time is much faster," he says. Metropolis would set up sample collection centres in the US which, in turn, would ship the samples to Mumbai where tests will be carried out.

In the Middle East, Metropolis Health plans to add 20 more labs.

In the domestic market Metropolis Health will add 54 labs to its existing network of 46. The company will also add radiology services to its portfolio.

These plans apart, the company has tied up with Star Clinics, a chain of clinics promoted by Star Health and Medical Tourism Pvt Ltd.

Under the agreement, Metorpolis Health will set up a lab in multi-speciality clinics promoted by Star Health and will have sample collection centres at other smaller Star Clinics. There are 40 such clinics in the South India.

According to V Jagannathan, chairman, Star Health & Allied Insurance Company Limited, the group has plans to open 400 clinics in three years time.

He said the group plans to open two more multi speciality clinics in Chennai.