---
endpoint: analytics
pattern: Healthcare
status: done
latency_ms: 168657
conversation_id: 23f264e3-75b5-4f10-b39a-9bf92fb7001b
citations: 14
created: 2026-05-31 21:19:03Z
---

# Who are the key customers and suppliers of IHH?

## IHH Healthcare — Key Customers & Suppliers

IHH Healthcare Berhad (IHH MK, ticker `5225`) is a hospital operator across Malaysia, Singapore, Türkiye/Europe, India, and Greater China. Unlike a manufacturer with a discrete customer/supplier list, IHH's "customers" are its patient population (and the payers behind them), and its "suppliers" are providers of medical consumables, equipment, pharmaceuticals, and clinical labour. Below is the breakdown drawn from internal CLSA research and IHH's own filings/earnings calls.

---

### Key Customers (Revenue Sources)

IHH's revenue ultimately comes from patients, but the *paymasters* are split across four distinct customer groups:

| Customer Type | Role | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| **Private medical insurers** | Dominant paymaster in core markets — pay claims on behalf of insured patients | Insurance payments account for **50–60% of revenue for Malaysian private hospitals** [1]; insurers are currently negotiating **10–40% discounts** with IHH Malaysia [4] |
| **Self-pay / out-of-pocket patients** | Direct retail customers, including the price-disparity discussion vs. insured patients in Malaysia | Malaysia public-hearing discussion of "two-tiered pricing in hospitals for insured and uninsured patients" |
| **Foreign / medical tourism patients** | High-margin segment in every IHH market | Türkiye foreign patients = **13% of Türkiye revenue in Q1 2025** (15% FY2024, 18% FY2023, 23% FY2022) [9]; Malaysia medical tourism ~**12–13%** group-wide with Penang's Island Hospital at **55%** [3]; foreign patients ~10% of Indian revenue pre-COVID with Africa/Middle East as key feeder regions [13] |
| **Corporate clients / expatriate communities** | Self-pay or corporate-insured premium segment in PRC/HK and Twin Towers Medical Centre KL | PRC (9 medical centres) and Hong Kong (1) network serves "the **premium self-pay or corporate-insured segment**, notably the urban and expatriate communities" [12] |
| **Government / public-sector partners** | Episodic — e.g., Singapore PPP with the Ministry of Health channelling COVID-19 patients into IHH's private capacity | Q1 2022: "we did have COVID-19 patients due to **private-public partnership where the Ministry of Health had sent COVID-19 patients**" [11] |

**Geographic revenue mix (Q1 2025, Türkiye/Europe segment, RM'b):** Türkiye Operations 76% / European Operations 24%, with foreign-patient share running 13% in Türkiye [9].

**India segment:** Largely domestic Indian patient base; IHH India delivered FY24 EBITDA of RM723m (+20% YoY) at 17.9% margin on a more-acute case-mix [6].

---

### Key Suppliers

IHH does NOT have a small set of named suppliers in the way an OEM does — it sources from a long tail. The main supplier categories are:

| Supplier Category | Details | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| **Medical equipment & devices** | Imported into Malaysia; APHM (industry body) explicitly states Malaysian hospitals "**procure it outside Malaysia. We're not a medical equipment or pharmaceutical producer**" [2] — equipment cost inflation is the primary driver of headline "medical inflation," not hospital fee hikes |
| **Pharmaceuticals & medical consumables (drugs, surgical supplies)** | Same imported cost structure; IHH management on Q3 2025 call noted Malaysian government is discussing **"national procurement to bring down the cost of medical consumables, drugs, and all that"** [8] |
| **Clinical labour — Nurses** | Cross-border recruitment from low-cost Asian feeder markets. IHH management: "**We get most of our nurses from the surrounding countries — Philippines, India, Myanmar**", flagging a global nursing shortage and Singapore public-sector wage competition [10] |
| **Doctors / consultants** | Largely consultant-model (admitting privileges), not employees in most markets; brand strength at Gleneagles drives doctor additions post-Fortis 100% acquisition |
| **Energy / utilities** | Diversifying into self-supply — large-scale solar project at **Acibadem (Türkiye) is expected to supply up to 80% of Acibadem's energy needs**; rooftop solar already on 10 MY hospitals + Gleneagles Hong Kong [14] |

**Procurement strategy:** IHH is actively consolidating its supplier base across the group. Management on the Q3 2025 call stated they are "**rationalization of suppliers and consolidation of procurement**" as a margin-defence lever, and post-Fortis acquisition of Gleneagles India they are "putting the back end together in terms of **procurement, in terms of IT, even some of the clinical program**" to drive synergies [7].

---

### Bottom Line

- **Customers** = (i) **private insurers** (~50–60% of Malaysia revenue) [1], (ii) **self-pay patients**, (iii) **medical tourists** (Türkiye 13% / Malaysia 12–15% / Singapore historically ~26% / India ~10% [3][9]), (iv) **corporate clients & expatriates** in PRC/HK [12], and episodic (v) **government/MOH** under PPP arrangements [11].
- **Suppliers** = a fragmented set of **imported medical equipment & pharma vendors** (cost driver pressing margins) [2], **cross-border nursing labour from Philippines/India/Myanmar** [10], **consultant doctors**, and increasingly **self-generated solar energy** at large hospitals [14]. The group is actively rationalising suppliers and consolidating procurement to defend margins against the insurer-discount pressure [7][8].

**Caveat:** IHH does not publicly disclose named individual customers or suppliers (concentration is low by design — it serves millions of patient encounters and procures from hundreds of vendors). The categories above are the most granular view available from CLSA research, IHH's own annual reports, and management earnings call commentary.

---
**Sources**
[1] Malaysia Healthcare (2025 set to be a tumultuous year) — CLSA (14 Jan 2025) — 607948170LinqAlpha.PDF
[2] Malaysia Healthcare (2025 set to be a tumultuous year) — CLSA (14 Jan 2025) — 607948170LinqAlpha.PDF (APHM quote on procurement)
[3] Malaysia Healthcare (2025 set to be a tumultuous year) — CLSA (14 Jan 2025) — 607948170LinqAlpha.PDF (medical tourism mix)
[4] IHH — HLD (Compelling longer term growth) — CLSA (12 Mar 2025) — 607952899LinqAlpha.PDF
[5] Malaysia Private hospitals (Symposium takeaways) — CLSA (20 Jun 2025) — 607962474LinqAlpha.PDF
[6] IHH — HLD (Compelling longer term growth) — CLSA (12 Mar 2025) — 607952899LinqAlpha.PDF (India operations)
[7] IHH Healthcare Berhad, Q3 2025 Earnings Call — procurement consolidation
[8] IHH Healthcare Berhad, Q3 2025 Earnings Call — national procurement discussion
[9] IHH Analyst Deck Q1 2025 (29 May 2025) — Türkiye/Europe foreign-patient mix
[10] IHH Healthcare Berhad, Q4 2023 Earnings Call — nursing sources
[11] IHH Healthcare Berhad, Q1 2022 Earnings Call — Singapore MOH PPP
[12] IHH Healthcare Berhad Annual Report (PRC/HK self-pay & corporate segment)
[13] IHH Healthcare Berhad, Q1 2024 Earnings Call — Türkiye foreign-patient regions
[14] IHH Healthcare Berhad Annual Report 2024 — Acibadem solar / energy supply

## Citations

- [1] **607948170LinqAlpha.PDF** · clsa — <s3://ext-linq-rms-clsa/2025/01/607948170LinqAlpha.PDF>
- [2] **607948170LinqAlpha.PDF** · clsa — <s3://ext-linq-rms-clsa/2025/01/607948170LinqAlpha.PDF>
- [3] **607948170LinqAlpha.PDF** · clsa — <s3://ext-linq-rms-clsa/2025/01/607948170LinqAlpha.PDF>
- [4] **607952899LinqAlpha.PDF** · clsa — <s3://ext-linq-rms-clsa/2025/03/607952899LinqAlpha.PDF>
- [5] **607962474LinqAlpha.PDF** · clsa — <s3://ext-linq-rms-clsa/2025/06/607962474LinqAlpha.PDF>
- [6] **607952899LinqAlpha.PDF** · clsa — <s3://ext-linq-rms-clsa/2025/03/607952899LinqAlpha.PDF>
- [7] **IHH Healthcare Berhad, Q3 2025** · external
- [8] **IHH Healthcare Berhad, Q3 2025** · external
- [9] **IHH_Analyst_Deck_Q1_2025_29_May_2025.pdf** · external
- [10] **IHH Healthcare Berhad, Q4 2023** · external
- [11] **IHH Healthcare Berhad, Q1 2022** · external
- [12] **Annual Reports and Related Documents** · external
- [13] **IHH Healthcare Berhad, Q1 2024** · external
- [14] **Annual Reports and Related Documents** · external

