Lyca Mobiles to launch operations in India this year

Lyca Group launches first luxury healthcare facility Westminster Healthcare in Chennai

Lyca Mobiles, a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) under the Lyca Group with 160 crores global turnover, is expected to launch its operations in India later this year. The company would be looking at offering value added services to win the market, said Allirajah Subaskaran, Lyca Group chairman.

"Our mobile business is there in 22 countries now and we are planning to launch in another 8 countries soon. We are applying for the license and expecting to launch the business in India before the end of this year," he added. He was in Chennai to announce the launch of the first luxury hospital of Westminster Healthcare, a subsidiary of LycaHealth.

The company can reach to a large number of markets outside the country, especially in the European market, which would be helpful to offer free roaming to its Indian customers. It would provide other premium services such as connecting overseas Lyca customers to Indian Lyca customers at the lowest possible price and other value added services like mHealth.

Lyca Mobiles is interconnected with more than 200 countries and the product is quality oriented with both national market and the international market, he added. The company will not be subsidising the mobile phone but provide the SIM and it will be working with local partners for the network, and would be a pan India launch.

"We see an opportunity in cross selling, we can offer premium service to the Lyca mobile customer here to our customer in other countries, and sometimes we may bundle it for the customers," he added.

Not revealing the expected investment into the mobile venture, Subaskaran added that the Group will be investing about 250 million pounds in India soon, including investments into its healthcare and other business plans.

"Being in over 22 countries, we have the purchasing power and we give the volume to the MNOs and buy in a very competitive price," said Prem Sivasamy, group deputy chairman, Lycamobile UK Ltd.

The Group is also planning to strengthen its operations in the financial services business. It currently has license to do business in the European countries and their options include inorganic growth, or a wallet along with its mobile services concept, open for the company, he further added. Lyca's production business is currently producing Robot 2.0, the second part of Rajinikanth starrer Robot.

LycaHealth, has announced launch of a luxury hospital, with day surgery facility in Chennai targeting the top one or two per cent of the Indian population who would be able to afford luxury healthcare services and would also offer multispecialty consultation.
The company has invested about 17 million pound in the facility and plans to invest 100 million pound within five years to set up similar facilities in cities including Bengaluru, Mumbai, Hyderabad and others depending on the initial response.

The revenue model is based on a membership drive, under which the customers can avail specific services annually for a fixed membership fee up to a premium of Rs 2.5 lakh, said Manpreet S Gulati, CEO, director and co-founder of Lyca Health.