METRO Pacific Investments Corp. is finalizing an agreement to operate the Cardinal Santos Medical Center in San Juan, Metro Manila, for 20 years through its unit, Medical Doctors Inc., which owns and operates the Makati Medical Center.

The agreement requires Metro Pacific to invest P750 million in the 212-bed hospital within the first 10 years, and the bulk of that amount will be used to buy more beds and new equipment, according to Manuel Pangilinan, Metro Pacific chairman.

The Archbishop of Manila owns the hospital, the land it is sitting on, and most of the buildings on the property on Wilson Street.

It tapped Medical Doctors to operate Cardinal Santos for six months last July while it prepared to select the hospital?s operator for the long term. It tapped Medical Doctors after its agreement with Hospital Managers Inc. to operate its hospital, signed in 1998, expired last year.

Metro Pacific Investments Corp., the local unit of Hong Kong?s First Pacific Co., had said earlier it was setting aside P1 billion this year to acquire two or three hospitals.

The company is the single largest shareholder in Medical Doctors and Davao Doctors Hospital Inc., one of the largest in Mindanao. It now operates 830 beds, and it is looking to build up to 5,000 beds to book P15 billion in extra revenue.

Makati Medical Center?s core profit reached P106 million in the first semester last year, and of which P35.5 million was attributable to Metro Pacific.

Davao Doctors posted a core profit of P4.1 million, and of which P1.4 million was attributable to Metro Pacific. Metro Pacific acquired 34 percent of Davao Doctors in May last year for P498 million. Jenniffer B. Austria