Sale secures future of HCI

has been secured by the investment arm of the Abu Dhabi government.

After months of complex and difficult negotiations with HCI's

receivers, the Abu Dhabi Investment Company has finally acquired the

business of the former Health Care International, together with some

fixtures and fittings for an undisclosed sum.

ADIC is putting #20m of equity into a new vehicle, Medical Investments

Group, to make the acquisition. The ''lion's share'' of that capital

will be used to fund the purchase and the ongoing development of the

business, now to be known as HCI Medical Centre.

The new owner reiterated yesterday that its main aim is to turn the

complex into an international centre of medical excellence. But it also

confirmed that it would continue to accept patients referred to

Clydebank by NHS trusts.

In a statement, ADIC said it is ''convinced of the long-term

feasibility of the majority of the hospital's patients coming from

overseas''. HCI's new chairman, Hareb Al Darmaki, the chairman of ADIC,

added: ''HCI is about delivering high- quality health care at affordable

cost.''

There is no guarantee that the Abu Dhabi connection will ensure a

baseload flow of patients from the Gulf emirates. ''ADIC is an

investment company. It does not have patients we can channel here,''

said Mr Colin Edwards, the head of the the projects department at ADIC.

''But we believe the facilities and staff at Clydebank are of such a

quality that they will justify our involvement in the venture.''

The new owners are not purchasing the state-of-the-art riverside

hospital and hotel. They will lease the premises from the receivers,

Murdoch McKillop and John Talbot of Arthur Andersen, acting on behalf of

the consortium of creditor banks. ADIC has an option to buy the complex

outright in due course.

Deals have also been done with all the principal leasing companies

with medical equipment at the Clydebank complex, to transfer these

undertakings to the new owners.

Since January 3, when ADIC was named as preferred bidder for HCI, the

Abu Dhabis have contributed a ''seven figure sum'' to the receivers to

keep the hospital complex trading and the bulk of its staff in jobs.

Current patient numbers are described as small by Dr Larry Hollier,

HCI's director of clinical affairs.

Both he and ADIC's spokesman Mr Edwards insisted that was inevitable,

given the uncertainty surrounding receivership. But Mr Edwards predicted

that the new business would break even, in cash flow terms, within two

years. The workforce, currently 350, could reach between 600 and 800 in

two years' time, he added. The original mature target, 1800 jobs, could

still be achieved ''in the medium term''.

The Scottish Office has already made it clear that, should such job

targets be met, the outstanding offer of regional selective assistance

to the old HCI, some #4.1m, will be available to the new owners.

The drive to find the patient numbers needed to make the complex

succeed falls to Dr Raphael Levey, one of the two Boston physicians who

originally conceived the venture.

He is in charge of business development in HCI Mark Two. ''The past is

prologue,'' he said yesterday.''