Avon Products, Los Angeles, announced last month that its healthcare funding arm has raised and distributed $50 million for women's health programs around the world. More than half of that amount was raised in the U.S. for programs in breast cancer education and detection. The beauty products company said it has set a goal of raising another $50 million by 2000. Avon Worldwide Fund for Women's Health, created in 1992, supports women's health programs in 28 countries.
International Finance Corp. is targeting Asian healthcare. According to its 1998 annual report, Washington-based IFC provided a $5 million loan and $1.6 million in equity to Lanka Hospital Corporation Private Limited for the construction of a 350-bed private hospital in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The total project will cost $32 million. Last year, IFC financed its first hospital in South Asia with an $8 million investment in a 270-bed specialty hospital in Calcutta, India. IFC, a member of the World Bank, promotes growth in developing countries by providing loans and equity financing to private-sector projects.
Capital Coast Health, a health and hospital services provider owned by the government of New Zealand, secured a corporate credit rating of A from New York-based Standard & Poor's last month. CCH, which is held by the country's health and finance ministries, receives 90% of its funding through annual contracts with the government, the rating agency says. Although CCH has posted consistent operating deficits since its inception in 1993, Standard & Poor's considers it a strong credit because of its "virtual monopoly position" in a specific service area, and because it accounts for more than 7% of the nation's total case-mix adjusted discharges in fiscal 1997.
Cigna International, Philadelphia, has tapped Lakshmi Nair as managing director of its new healthcare consulting and services company in New Delhi, India. Nair, who joined Cigna in 1997, has 13 years of experience in managed care. She will help Indian employers and healthcare providers design health plans and programs, establish industrial and paramedic clinics and set up community health facilities and immunization centers. The company also will provide healthcare administration and processing services.
