A slew of investors led by private equity (PE) firms and sovereign wealth funds such as the Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA), an autonomous government body responsible for managing various funds for the oil-rich Arab nation, the UK-based PE firm Actis, TPG Capital and Banyan Tree Finance are scouring the Indian healthcare start-up space for possible investments. The emerging healthcare space is expected to post an exponential growth with the rising disposable income of the people, especially in the rural areas.
A Ficci-E&Y survey had forecast the wellness sector is alone to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 14% to 15% till 2012, making it one of the fast growing sectors in the country. ?This space is also becoming attractive to investors since the ticket size of the deals are relatively small compared to other sectors,? a fund manager with a local investment firm said.
Kuwaiti ambassador to India SM Al-Sulaiman had recently gone on record saying that the Arab nation was in the look out for investment opportunities in the healthcare space. ?Kuwait Investment Authority is scouting for opportunities in education and healthcare in India,? he had reportedly said in an interactive session with the members of Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Kolkotta recently.
The Mumbai-based fitness chain, Talwalkars has Prusik Asia Fund and Carlson Fund India as the main non-promoter shareholders. While Prusik Asia Fund holds close to 4% stake in the fitness firm, Carlson Fund India holds a tad lower than 2.5% in the company.
Similarly, a host of hedge funds and PE firms such as TPG Capital and Banyan Tree Finance were reportedly in talks with the Chennai-based cord blood banking and stem cell research firm LifeCell International. The company had earlier said it was looking to raise funds to the tune R45 crore to R50 crore to finance its new business plans.
Glocal Healthcare Systems, which is planning to roll out a chain of low cost rural healthcare facilities, had reportedly received funding from a consortium of funds led by Sequoia Capital and Elevar Equity recently. Similarly, the UK-based fund Actis had committed an investment in the equity capital of Sterling Hospitals, though the investment made by the fund is not known. Other players like Milestone Religare, and Spring Healthcare are also in the look out for opportunities in this emerging space.
The home grown private equity fund TVS Capital along with the US PE major Mount Kellett Capital Management had recently announced that they would invest close to R400 crore in the Hyderabad-based MedPlus Health Services. The Hyderabad-based pharma retailer is expected to offload somewhere between 35% to 40% stake in the company in favour of the funds.