Rise Fund buys Bangladesh hospital operator

The investment – worth BDT10 billion ($118 million), according to local media – was made by The Evercare Health Fund, a $1 billion vehicle previously run by The Abraaj Group. Concerns over its management triggered the chain of events that led to Abraaj’s demise last year. The LPs – including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and CDC Group – hired TPG Growth as a replacement GP.

CDC, a UK government-controlled development finance institution that invested $75 million in the fund, confirmed the purchase of a majority stake in STS Holdings, owner and operator of Apollo Hospitals Dhaka. It will become part of an Evercare portfolio comprising 28 hospitals, 18 clinics and 54 diagnostics centers in India, Pakistan, Kenya and Nigeria. Existing assets include India-based CARE Hospitals, which Abraaj bought from Advent International in 2016.

Apollo Hospitals Dhaka is a 425-bed multi-disciplinary super-specialty tertiary care facility founded in 2005 under a franchise agreement with India's Apollo Hospitals Enterprise. Specialist areas include maternal and newborn care, cardiology, orthopedics, nephrology and gastroenterology. STS is also developing a new, 400-bed hospital in Chittagong.

“Evercare exists to serve emerging markets that need access to quality, comprehensive care that seeks to improve patient outcomes while reducing costs and increasing efficiency,” said Andrew Currie, COO of Evercare, in a statement. “STS’ strong foothold in the Bangladesh market, quality facilities and services, and strategic and operational alignment with the Evercare network make it a perfect complement to our growing platform in Africa and South Asia.”

TPG raised $2.1 billion for the first iteration of The Rise Fund in 2017, attracting global institutional investors that had previously steered clear of the impact space by promising measurable impact plus private equity-style returns. The departure of Bill McGlashan, founder of TPG Growth and co-founder of The Rise Fund, has made the second fundraise more challenging, but a first close of $1.7 billion came last October. The target is said to be around $2.5 billion.

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Healthcare
• Buyouts
• Bangladesh
• TPG Capital
• CDC Group
• Impact investment