KKR picks up 49 per cent in Radiant Life Care for 200 million dollar

Mumbai: Global private equity major KKR has agreed to invest USD 200 million for a 49 per cent stake in the Abhay Soi-run hospital management firm Radiant Life Care that runs the city's Nanavati Hospital and BLK Hospital in the national Capital.

"KKR has picked up 49 per cent in Radiant for USD 200 million, valuing it at a little over USD 400 million. With this my holding in the country has come down to 51 per cent.

"The proceeds will be used for expansion through acquisitions and consolidation. There are many distressed assets in the healthcare space in our metros today. We are talking to banks to partner with them to acquire some of the distressed assets," Radiant Life Care founder chairman Abhay Soi told .

KKR and Radiant managements will work together to expand the company's footprint across the metros to make high-quality healthcare services more accessible, to drive health tourism business, and also organ transplants among others, Soi added.

Earlier a media report had said India-focused Singapore-based PE firm Everstone Capital was also in the race to pick up stake in Radiant.

Radiant already operates 1,000 beds of high-end, state-of-the-art quaternary care facilities in Mumbai (Nanavati Super Speciality Hospital) and New Delhi (BLK Super Speciality Hospital).

The company is already working on doubling the number of beds to 2,000 at these hospitals, Soi said, adding the ongoing expansion will be taken care of by internal accruals.

The city-based Radiant, launched by MNC banker-turned entrepreneur Soi in under a decade ago, has picked up these hospitals a few years ago and successfully rebuilt and re- launched and have already made them profitable now.

Radiant is one of the few established players managing hospitals in Mumbai and Delhi that offer high-end quaternary care, including vital organ transplants, apart from offering some of the largest bone marrow transplant units in the world.

For KKR, this investment in Radiant is an affirmation of the existing partnership having already extended a Rs 550-crore loan to Radiant to support its growth plans earlier. KKR will invest the proposed money through KKR Asian Fund III.

Following the deal Sanjay Nayar, KKR India head, and Nikhil Srivastava, a director at KKR, will join the board of Radiant.

Commenting on the investment, Nayar said "given the growing demand for superior medical treatment scale and operating leverage are increasingly important, Radiant has a unique opportunity to acquire more assets."

KKR has invested over USD3 billion through its private equity practise in the country since 2006 and its portfolio here includes Aricent, Bharti Infratel, Avendus Capital, Cafe Coffee Day, Emerald Media, Magma Fincorp, Max Financial Services, and SBI Life among others.

Radiant forayed into healthcare some years back with the re-development and commissioning of BLK, a 650-bed hospital which today is one of the largest private sector hospitals in Delhi-NCR. BLK is now being expanded into a 1,600-bed quaternary care facility.

Since 2014, Radiant has collaborated with the Nanavati Hospital Trust to take over the operations of the a 350-bed multi-speciality Nanavati Hospital. Radiant is expanding this into a 1000-bed quaternary care institute now.

As per media reports, Radiant is close to acquire Sahara Group's Lucknow hospital for Rs 500 crore with as 350 operational beds but can be scaled up to 550.

As per a May 2017 report by the Indian Brand Equity Foundation, domestic healthcare industry is slated to touch USD 160 billion by end 2017 and USD 280 billion by 2020.

Hospital and diagnostic centres attracted FDI worth USD 4.09 billion between April 2000 and September 2016,as per the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion data.