International Finance Corp. (IFC) has invested Rs450 crore for a 29% stake in Apollo Health and Lifestyle Ltd (AHLL), a unit of Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd.
Apollo Hospitals, India’s largest healthcare provider, said the investment from IFC, the World Bank’s private sector investment arm, values AHLL at Rs1,860 crore.
AHLL currently operates a range of formats that fill the space between home care and tertiary care hospitals. AHLL includes multi-specialty clinics—Apollo Clinics, Apollo Sugar, Apollo Diagnostics, Apollo White, Apollo Dialysis, Apollo Cradle, Apollo Fertility, Apollo Spectra __ across India. It is present in 17 states, with over 400 customer touch points.
Apollo said the IFC investment would fund the proposed expansion plans across all formats of AHLL for the next two years, after which the company will look for a further round of funding. AHLL is also open for acquisitions to expand its network more aggressively.
AHLL, which had Rs330 crore revenue in 2015-16, hopes to raise it to Rs440 crore this year. Out of this, clinics, diagnostics centres, and diabetes clinics are expected to generate 50%, with the rest coming from Spectra and Cradle.
“Given the immense potential and the need for quality healthcare delivery at affordable prices, AHLL will continue to expand through both organic and inorganic means and is committed to enhancing the patient experience and medical care offered by the current network,” Sangita Reddy, joint managing director of Apollo Hospitals, said at a press conference.
“We are looking for a long-term investor; we have known IFC for many years and they have done four transactions with Apollo in the past, there was the comfort factor,” said Neeraj Garg, chief executive officer of AHLL.
“Our investment in Apollo reflects our commitment to private sector supporting the delivery of better health outcomes. It addresses issues of access, quality, and affordability across the country,” said Henrik Elschner Pedersen, senior manager, consumer and social Services, Asia Pacific at IFC.
“Since 2005, IFC has made multiple rounds of debt and equity investments in Apollo Hospitals to help the company with its expansion plans and increase access to affordable healthcare in the country,” Pedersen added.
IFC is the world’s largest multilateral investor in private healthcare, with an active portfolio of Rs11,700 crore of health investments, of which it has deployed a third in India through both debt and equity-style investments. In the health care sector, it has invested in Apollo’s rivals Fortis Healthcare Ltd and Max Hospitals. It has previously also invested in eye-care firm Eye-Q Vision, dialysis chain NephroPlus, home healthcare firm Portea and diagnostics chain SRL.
According to a report by Crisil Research, the Indian healthcare delivery market is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12% to reach Rs6.8 trillion by 2019-20.
Crisil’s estimates, the size of the Indian healthcare delivery industry in 2014-15, stood at Rs3.8 trillion.
According to the report, change in age demographics and rising incomes, improvement in health awareness, changes in the disease profile (towards life-related ailments), rising penetration of health insurance and increasing opportunities from medical tourism will propel demand for healthcare facilities in India.
Supply side constraints are also fueling investor interest.
“It’s about market growth, billion people not enough hospital beds and infrastructure in both rural and urban areas,” said Sujay Shetty, leader of the life sciences practice at PwC India, on private equity investors interest in Indian healthcare.
Apollo Hospitals shares rose 1.77% to close at Rs1,219.60 on the BSE on Thursday while the benchmark Sensex fell 0.35% to close at 26,559.92 points.
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Source: Mint
