KUALA LUMPUR: IHH Healthcare Bhd aims to further reduce foreign exchange (forex) exposure to between US$300 million and US$350 million, from US$420 million currently in its Turkish home market where it has a 90% stake in Acibadem.
IHH group CFO Low Soon Teck (pix) said that the group plans to refinance between US$125 million and US$187.5 million of its debt denominated in euro and US dollar into Turkish lira.
“For this exercise, we have to do it in stages or we’ll place ourselves out of the market. At the moment, we aim to reduce it to US$350 million to US$300 million by the end of the year,” he told reporters at its AGM today.
Last year, the group held debt denominated in euro and US dollar equivalent to US$670 million in its Turkish home market, where the free falling lira saw a 30% decline against the US dollar.
The group subsequently managed to reduce the forex risk to US$420 million earlier in April.
