Fidelity Growth Partners India (FGPI) has made an investment of Rs 400 crore ($75 million) in Trivitron Healthcare Private Limited (Trivitron). Through this deal, ePlanet Ventures and Headland Capital, who have been invested in Trivitron since 2007, made partial exits.
Trivitron has pan-India presence as wholesale distributor and after-sales support provider of medical equipment and devices. Its areas of expertise include imaging, lab diagnostics, cardiology, critical care,renal care, operating room and ophthalmology equipment.
Raj Dugar, Senior Managing Director at FIL Capital Advisors (India) Private Limited, the private equity advisory arm for FGPI, said, "The medical equipment sector in the country is still nascent and dominated by imports. We believe that India will follow the same evolution trajectory as other emerging markets like China where large, indigenous manufacturers of medical equipment have emerged over the past decade.”
According to a company statement, latest funding will help Trivitron to close FY2012-13 with estimated gross revenues in excess of Rs 700 crore through organic and inorganic routes.
The fast growing diagnostic sector in India has been on the radar of PE majors. Early this year, Singapore-based GIC invested $100 million in Vasan Healthcare, while Goldman Sachs invested about Rs 300 crore for 6 per cent stake in Max India last year.
The diagnostics market in India comes about Rs 10,000 crore.
In last September, Thyrocare Technologies Limited, a Mumbai-based medical diagnostics services provider, has raised about Rs 120 crore from Norwest Venture Partners. Private equity fund Avigo Capital Partners had picked up about 10 per cent stake for Rs 100 crore in a pre-Initial Public Offering (IPO) placement in Super Religare Laboratories (SRL) last year.
In 2010, US-based TA Associates had invested $35 million in Dr Lal Pathlabs.