 "Medfort Hospitals plans for next fund raise")
Medfort Hospitals had earlier seen two rounds of private equity infusion from TVS Shriram Growth Fund and ePlanet Ventures. Dr Velu is embarking on this fund raise after he recently raised $100 million from Fidelity Partners for his medical equipment business — Trivitron Healthcare, which provided exit for ePlanet Ventures.
According to information available, Medfort Hospitals, which has presence in New Delhi, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, is looking to expand into a pan-India chain both organically and inorganically. When contacted by Business Standard on the fresh funding plans, Dr Velu said they would be able to decide in another couple of weeks on the quantum of funds. The company, as part of its earlier expansion plans, had merged with Hyderabad-based eyecare chain Maxivision Eye Hospitals.
As and when Medfort manages to raise the private equity fund, it will further consolidate PE’s interest in vertically-focussed healthcare chains even as they chase the multi-specialty hospitals. During 2012, the healthcare segment was among the second most sought-after segment with as much as $1.2 billion invested across 48 deals. Some of the major investments worth $100 million or more in the healthcare segment include Manipal Health Systems, Care Hospitals and besides DM Healthcare. One of the significant $100 million transactions in the vertically integrated healthcare chain space during last year was that of Vasan Eye Care in which GIC Singapore picked up minority stake.
Investment bankers who specialise in the healthcare segment indicate that in addition to the Medfort Hospitals, there are quite a few of such transactions in the works in the eye care, orthopaedic among others and they are expected to be announced over the next couple of quarters.