PHC will divest one-third of its equity in favour of the strategic partner in consultation with Munich Re (which holds a 33 per cent stake in PHC), he added.

PHC, he said, may also consider offers made by companies from Turkey and the US in case talks with the FI fall through.

The company plans to expand into IT-enabled services in a big way. It already has a 24-hour call centre and a back office in place, which it now plans to further develop to match global standards. PHC has been approached by hospitals in the US to undertake medical transcription, a proposition that the company is currently evaluating.

"Foreign insurance companies will also be able to outsource their call centre and back office operations. The outsourced unit will be similar to a central processing house for their healthcare and medical insurance activities. Later, we plan to set up a subsidiary to look into all IT-enabled activities including body shopping," Dr Shah said.

PHC is in the business of providing third party administration (TPA). A classic TPA is a service entity aiming at the provision of cost efficient and effective administrative services on behalf of third parties.

The valuation of PHC is estimated to be around Rs 80 crore according to a valuation done by consultants a few months ago, Dr Shah revealed.

The company has also acquired permission to display clinical guidelines from the America National Guidelines Clearing House.

PHC currently has 65,000 members and has already processed 8,000 claims, recovering Rs 16 crore during the last 18 months since its inception. It plans to take its membership from 2.5 lakh to five lakh by the end of December, 2001, he said.

The company has a network of 750 hospitals of which 480 are empanelled and has acquired permission for the rest. Ninety-five per cent of these have round-the-clock surgical facilities and ICUs and are spread over 130 towns in India.

The company is also waiting for the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority (IRDA) to issue regulations for TPA, prior to which it is putting its house in order, Dr. Shah said.