Indian homegrown private equity (PE) firm ChrysCapital has announced an investment of up to $100 million in New Delhi-headquartered Centre for Sight, signalling increased investor interest in single-speciality hospital chains in the country.
The deal is a combination of primary and secondary transactions. The PE behemoth has picked up existing backer Mahindra Holdings’s entire stake in the eye hospital chain, thereby paving its exit.
The fresh capital will help Centre for Sight strengthen its presence in tier 1 and 2 cities in India, founder Mahipal Singh Sachdev, who is also a prominent ophthalmologist, told DealStreetAsia.
We had in May 2023 reported that ChrysCapital, along with PE giants KKR and TPG, was in talks to invest in the Indian eye care provider.
Sachdev founded Centre for Sight in 1996 to cater to the growing demand for eye care in the country. Today, it is one of the top three organised eye care chains in India, with a dominant presence in North India, and an annual footfall of over 1.5 million. The chain operates 83 centres across 39 cities in the country.
The company claims to have a leadership position in the Delhi-NCR market with 15 centres and 13 vision stores, including a flagship facility at Dwarka.
Single-speciality hospitals typically offer specialty services in one area of healthcare, such as eye care, dental care, fertility, or oncology.
The eye care industry alone has received investments of over $1,050 million in the last couple of years. Prominent deals include Jodhpur-headquartered ASG Eye Hospitals’s Rs 1,500 crore ($188 million) fundraising in 2022 led by PE firms General Atlantic and Kedaara Capital. Others who had joined the round included Foundation Holdings.
In 2022, Dr Agarwal’s Health Care Ltd. secured Rs 1,050 crore from TPG Growth and Temasek, among other deals.
Among other single specialty players in other sectors, Quadria Capital picked up a minority stake in NephroPlus earlier this month for Rs 850 crore.
For ChrysCapital, which is currently on the road to raising its biggest fund at about $2 billion, the healthcare sector has been of key interest given the significantly underserved market and the potential for share gain from organised players.
Its other healthcare bets in the country include Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences, Intas Pharma, Mankind Pharma, La Renon Healthcare, Eris Lifesciences, Corona Remedies, Torrent Pharma, Ipca Labs, Curatio Healthcare and Zydus Cadila.
Since its inception in 1999, the PE firm has made over 100 investments and realised about $7 billion from 80 full exits.
Its LP base includes sovereign wealth funds, university endowments, pension funds, global fund-of-funds, global insurance companies, and family offices.