Delhi-based hospital chain Ujala Cygnus, which is backed by United States-based private equity (PE) firm General Atlantic, on Monday announced that it has agreed to acquire a significant stake in Punjab-based Amandeep Hospitals.
The acquired group operates five super speciality hospitals with more than 800 operational beds in the Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir region.
“Ujala Cygnus would be taking around 60 per cent in the company,” a company spokesperson said. The company did not respond to queries on the deal size.
Cygnus’s expansion drive in northern India comes after General Atlantic took a majority stake in it last year. The group currently has around 2,200 operational beds in 21 hospitals, majorly situated in Tier-II and Tier-III cities of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir, and Delhi.
“The acquisition will put the entity close to 3,000 operational beds,” Probal Ghosal, chairman, director and co-founder, Ujala Cygnus Healthcare Services, said.
Under the agreement, the acquired hospitals will run on an asset-light model, barring one or two units where Amandeep Hospitals already has ownership of the unit building.
With this partnership, Ujala Cygnus enters the Punjab healthcare market for the first time, growing its overall network from 21 to 26 hospitals, with the addition of five hospitals across Amritsar, Pathankot, Firozpur, and Srinagar.
Ghosal said that by combining their respective strengths, the companies aim to redefine the healthcare landscape in Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir. “We wanted to expand in Punjab because it is a good market where we did not have a good presence,” he added.
Looking ahead, the combined group is looking to expand further in Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Patiala, and the Chandigarh tricity region, while also augmenting services towards higher-end tertiary and quaternary care.
The agreement also consolidates Ujala Cygnus’ leadership in Jammu and Kashmir, making it the largest private hospital network in the region.
Ghosal added that the group is currently concentrating on north India due to the opportunity the region provides in terms of expansion.
On further expansion plans, Ghosal said that Ujala Cygnus will look for opportunities in other parts of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand also.
“We are only looking at multi-speciality hospitals, with 150 to 200 beds opportunity,” he added.
While Ghosal said that the company currently does not have any greenfield plans, it is looking at opportunities in Jammu.
“Our first preference would be to look for brownfield or maybe already existing hospitals, but we will not be averse to looking at a greenfield opportunity in Jammu,” he added.
