TPG to buy stake in Manipal Health for $146 mln

MUMBAI (Reuters) - U.S. private equity fund TPG Capital Management will buy a "significant minority stake" in Indian private hospital operator Manipal Health Enterprises Ltd for 9 billion rupees ($145.86 million), the companies said in a joint statement on Thursday.

Manipal Health, part of Manipal Education and Medical Group, owns and operates 10 multi-specialty hospitals across five states in western and southern India, according to the statement. It also operates teaching hospitals and fertility clinics.

The statement did not specify the size of the stake TPG would acquire in Manipal Health.

India's private hospital operators are attracting strong investor interest as a growing number of more affluent Indian patients are willing to pay for better-equipped clinics because of the poor state of public hospitals.

 

TPG and Malaysia's IHH Healthcare Bhd are vying to buy a controlling stake in India's Global Hospitals in a deal that would value the privately owned chain at $350 million, two people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters earlier this month.

($1 = 61.7009 rupees)

(Reporting by Rafael Nam; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)