Canada’s Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP) on Wednesday said it has entered into an agreement to acquire a significant majority stake in Sahyadri Hospitals Group from the Everstone Group, an India- and Southeast Asia-focused private equity and real estate investment firm.
The acquisition marks OTPP’s first control private equity buyout in India, and fourth major investment in the country over the last 12 months, it said in a statement.
Everstone had acquired a controlling stake in Sahyadri Hospitals Ltd in 2019. The private equity investor, along with key management and founders, will retain minority stake in the company, the statement added.
“It has been a great experience partnering with Everstone and executing the playbook of consolidation and growth. We look forward to working with Ontario Teachers’ to further build on this base and expand into other parts of the Western India region,” Sahyadri Hospitals CEO Abrarali Dalal said.
“Sahyadri as a brand is all set to take up a larger role in the Indian healthcare delivery ecosystem, not only in footprint, but in setting up some of the most advanced and exemplary clinical practices in India,” Dalal added.
Founded in Pune in 1994, Sahyadri currently has eight hospitals with 900 operating beds and 300 critical-care beds. The hospital chain plans to grow capacity by over 500 beds during the next five years.
“We believe we can leverage our significant global experience in the healthcare sector to help scale the company into a national healthcare provider in the coming years,” said Raju Ruparelia, senior managing director, private capital, Asia-Pacific, at OTPP.
The transaction is expected to close in Q4 2022 and is subject to customary closing conditions.
OTPP is a global investor with net assets of C$242.5 billion as of June 30 2022. It invests in more than 50 countries across equities to real estate to infrastructure and venture growth.
Meanwhile, Singapore-headquartered Everstone has assets of $7 billion across private equity, climate impact, logistics, digital and venture capital. It operates out of seven offices in Singapore, Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, New York, Dubai and Mauritius.