Health

Verlinvest leads race for minority stake in Eye Foundation, Health News, ET HealthWorld

New Delhi: Verlinvest, an investment company of the shareholder family of Anheuser-Busch InBev, is leading the race to purchase a minority stake in Coimbatore-headquartered Eye Foundation, according to sources, trumping several home grown and international PE investors.

Verlinvest could pick up around 20% stake in the company valuing Eye Foundation at Rs. 3,370 crore. The investment which could be close to around Rs. 840 crore ($100 million) will be through purchase of existing shares from the eye hospital chain’s founder Dhandapani Ramamurthy and subscription to new shares issued by the company.

Ramamurthy is an ophthalmologist who practiced at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi.

Eye foundation runs eye hospitals mostly in southern India.

The Belgium-headquartered company has edged past others such as Warburg Pincus, TA Associates, ICICI Venture and Multiples Equity that had also submitted initial proposals for an equity stake, as per the sources cited earlier.

Verlinvest and Eye Foundation had not responded to ET’s queries until press time. Emailed queries to Warburg Pincus, TA Associates, Multiples Equity and ICICI Venture had not elicited a response.

Verlinvest was an early investor in Sula Vineyards and exited the 14 year-old investment last year. It’s other investments in India are Epigamia, Purplle , Byjus, Wakefit, Veeba and Blue Tokai.

It’s most recent investment of $35 million in coffee chain Blue Tokai which runs around 130 outlets took place in August. Investments in online beauty products retailer Purplle and mattress and furniture company Wakefit were made four years ago while those in Epigamia and Byjus were made in 2017.

Verlinvest’s Asia managing director Arjun Anand told Reuters in a recent interview that Indian healthcare and lifestyle companies currently comprise less than 10% of its portfolio, below the global average of 25% in healthcare and nearly 20% in lifestyle businesses.

Eye hospitals have caught the fancy of private equity investors with most of them receiving funding from such investors over the past twenty four months.

For instance, Chennai-headquartered eye care chain Dr. Agarwals raised Rs 1,050 crore from USA’s TPG and Singapore’ Temasek in July of 2022. The two funds quickly topped up that investment with a Rs 650-crore infusion in August last year. Dr. Agarwal’s is now readying for an initial public offering. Between TPG and Temasek, they now own a majority stake in Dr. Agarwals.

More recently, Delhi-based Centre for Sight with nearly 100 eye hospitals spread across northern, eastern and certain western Indian states, raised Rs 830 crore from ChrysCapital by selling a minority stake.

General Atlantic and Kedaara Partners had pumped Rs 1,500 crore in Jodhpur-based eye hospital chain ASG in July 2022. Singapore-headquartered Quadria Capital picked up a Rs 1,300 crore stake in eye care chain Maxivision in July 2023.

  • Published On Nov 27, 2024 at 03:54 PM IST

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