A move from Alliance Medicorp, a joint venture between Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd (AHEL) and medical technology firm Trivitron Healthcare, to tie up with US-based dialysis services major DaVita Inc for its future expansion has failed, according to Pratap C Reddy, executive chairman, AHEL.
With plans for the tie-up with DaVita falling through, Alliance Medicorp would proceed with the expansion projects on its own, he said. Around 70 per cent of the stake in the joint venture is with Apollo Hospitals while 30 per cent is with Trivitron Healthcare, promoted by entrepreneur G S K Velu.
“We were in talks with DaVita for a tie-up to expand the dialysis centres. But it seems they are not interested, so we are planning to go ahead on our own,” he said to reporters on the sidelines of announcing successful completion of 55 complex robotic surgeries by AHEL. However, he did not divulge more on the tie-up plans and future plans in dialysis retail segment.
Till January-end, 2012, the joint venture had five dialysis centres and plans were afoot to expand this to 20 clinics in future, according to earlier reports.
The JV has rebranded its dental clinics chain business under the brand Apollo Dental Centers, into White Dental Care by restructuring it into various formats to cater to the needs of different patient segments.
The JV firm had plans to dilute stake to raise funds for its future expansion. According to earlier reports, both the JV partners were planning to dilute stake to pave way for the new partner.
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Davita Inc provides kidney care services in the United States, delivering dialysis services to patients with chronic kidney failure and end-stage renal disease.
Responding to a query on reports that Sutherland Global Services and Genpact are in talks with AHEL’s healthcare business process outsourcing (BPO) arm, Apollo Health Street, he said the company is interested in diluting stakes to companies which are into the same line of business. It was approached by a few private investors, but the decision is not to dilute stakes to private investors, he said.
AHEL, which is conducting robotic surgeries from four centres including Chennai and Kolkata, is planning to install the robotic surgery equipments in two more centres in the present fiscal, said Reddy. It would require around Rs 10-15 crore for a single robot, a minimally-invasive technology which is claimed to be effective for surgery in obese and diabetic patients.
The robots are patented by California-based Intuitive Surgicals Inc for which the patent is expected to expire by the end of this year. The price of the product may come down post expiry of the patent, which could then be manufactured by other manufacturers too, said experts in robotic surgery.