Vikram Hospital raises Rs 96 crore

ICICI Venture has invested $24 million (Rs 96 crore) in the Mysore-based Vikram Hospital Group (VHPL) for an undisclosed stake.

The investment has been made through IVen Medicare, the health arm of ICICI Venture, which will help VHPL establish a pan-Karnataka footprint, ICICI Venture director(Investments) Aluri Srinivasa Rao said here on Monday.

VHPL is a family-owned business and plans to use the funds to scale up its infrastructure by offering support in areas like medical informatics, quality and accreditation, HR practice, commercial and technology.

VHPL has its flagship 104-bed superspecialty tertiary care hospital in Mysore. The company is also setting up five dedicated specialty hospitals within two km radius of its flagship hospital in Mysore, which will add another 200 beds.

The speciality hospital would cover trauma care, orthopaedics, plastic surgery and neuro surgery, gastroenterology, urology, nephrology, women and child, and oncology among others, said VHPL MD Vikram. In addition, it will expand its existing cardiac practice at its flagship hospital.

Vikram said apart from the equity investment, the company was also looking at raising another Rs 204 crore to support its expansion plans. This would be raised through debt, which they expect to conclude in the next couple of weeks.

VHPL plans to roll out its hospitals across the state, to start with the South Karnataka. These projects are in various stages of planning and implementation, and will be completed in the next three years.

"The expansion plans are a mix of greenfield and brownfield initiatives, including leasing of hospitals and operation," he added.

Iven Medicare has invested $10 million in the Delhi-based RG Stone Hospital, $15 million in Kolkata-based Medica Synergie and $36 million in Pune-based Sahaydri.