Suning invests in Yunfeng co-invest vehicle for iKang take-private

The vehicle, which has a hard cap of $122 million, will receive additional contributions from institutional investors, corporates and high net worth individuals. It will be used to buy shares in IK Healthcare Holdings, the entity behind the privatization, according to a filing. Two units of Alibaba Group have also agreed to invest $267.6 million and $89.2 million, respectively, in IK Healthcare Holdings.

Alibaba and Yunfeng agreed to acquire US-listed iKang in March 2018. The deal was financed by $1.15 billion in equity from Yunfeng and Alibaba and rollover equity from the company founders.

This followed a protracted process that initially saw two consortiums - one led by iKang's chairman and FountainVest Partners and the other by Meinian Onehealth - in competition for the asset. At one point, iKang announced a rights issue, also known as a poison pill strategy, to thwart the Meinian bid.

Set up in 2004, iKang provides medical examination services through 89 self-owned medical centers in 27 cities. Third-party service providers are used in 150 cities. The company reported revenue of $563.9 million for the year ended March 2018, up from $435.7 million 12 months earlier. Over the same period, the net loss increased from $9.3 million to $17.3 million.

Yunfeng was established by Jack Ma and David Yu, founders of Alibaba and Target Media, respectively. Last year, the firm closed its third US dollar-denominated fund at $2.5 billion. Suning is one of the LPs, having agreed to invest up to $210 million.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Healthcare
• Buyouts
• Fundraising
• China
• healthcare
• Yunfeng Capital
• Alibaba Group
• Co-investment