Manipal Hospitals to raise $29m from private equity

Kotak Investment Banking has informally been awarded the mandate to close the deal and has received two proposals, a person close to the development told LiveMint. Another healthcare-focused private equity firm will meet the investment bankers this week, the person added.

Manipal will also explore the possibility of a fresh infusion from existing investor Kotak Private Equity Group, which committed INR1.1 billion in the company two years ago.

The capital raised will be used for expanding both existing and upcoming facilities. "Our first project is to increase the bed capacity in our existing facilities at Bangalore, Mangalore and Goa to 2,200 from the current 1,600," Rajen Padukone, Manipal CEO, said. "Other projects include setting up greenfield multi-specialty hospitals in Pune, Hyderabad, Bhubaneswar; that will add capacity of another 1,200 beds, over the next two years."

As part of the Manipal Education and Medical Group, the healthcare chain manages 4,400 beds and caters to more than 1.7 million patients a year.

India's $40 billion healthcare market has been attracting private equity investors in recent months. According to AVCJ Research, PE firms have committed $439 million to Indian healthcare companies across nine deals so far in 2012, surpassing last year's total amount of $333 million. Hospitals and healthcare centers have accounted for five transactions and around 85% of the total spending.

Earlier this month, Advent International was said to invest $105 million in multi-specialty hospital chain CARE Hospitals by acquiring shares from some of the existing investors and injecting additional capital into the business.

Last month, Government of Singapore Investment Corp. (GIC) paid $100 million for a minority stake in Vasan Healthcare, which runs eye care hospitals across India. In January, Olympus Capital Asia committed a similar amount in DM Healthcare, which operates hospitals, medical centers and pharmacies in India and the Middle East.

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Save this article  
• Send to  

• Topics
• South Asia
• Healthcare
• Expansion
• GIC Private