S'pore hospital operator targets wealthy baby boomers in China

The task of providing elderly care for the growing number of Chinese baby boomers may be a headache for Beijing, but a Singapore real estate and healthcare firm sees it as an evergreen opportunity.

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With over 400 million Chinese set to enter their 60s over the coming decade, Singapore-based Perennial Holdings is betting on sound returns for investors able to meet the demand for premium care and services for this group, who were born in China's tumultuous 1960s but fortunate enough to reap the benefits of its stellar economic rise in the past few decades.

"When people have a certain level of income, they are used to a certain level of medical treatment. It cannot be totally catered for by the government," Perennial's chairman and chief executive Pua Seck Guan said in an interview.

With the world's second-largest economy slowing and its single-child policy having contributed to a low birth rate for decades, China faces an unprecedented challenge in caring for its swelling ranks of senior citizens.