International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank's private-sector investment arm, has proposed to put in Rs 61.5 crore ($9.45 million) in Kanpur-based healthcare services provider Regency Hospital Ltd.
The equity investment will be part of Regency’s planned expansion for about Rs 160 crore ($24.6 million), IFC said in a statement. The company will raise the remaining funds from other investors or through external debt and internal cash, it added.
Regency, whose promoters took it private last year, was set up in 1989 by Atul Kapoor and Rashmi Kapoor. It operates a 175-bed multi-specialty tertiary care hospital and a 75-bed renal care super-specialty hospital in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. It also has a healthcare clinic that provides outpatient and diagnostic services, and dialysis treatment centers under a joint venture with Fresenius Medical Care.
The healthcare firm plans to increase the number of operational beds by 550 beds. It plans to open a secondary care hospital and an oncology hospital in Kanpur. The cancer-care hospital will be operated under a joint venture with Bangalore-based oncology chain HealthCare Global Enterprises (HCG).
HCG was listed on the exchanges last month and IFC came in as one of the anchor investors ahead of its initial public offering. IFC invested a third of the total Rs 292.3 crore that anchor investors put in.
Two other hospital chains based in northern India are also eyeing funds for expansion. Asian Institute of Medical Sciences is looking for a fresh round of private equity funding, as is Cygnus Medicare.
The IFC noted that Uttar Pradesh lags behind other states in terms of healthcare facilities. The state has 0.6 beds per 1,000 people compared with an all-India average of 0.9 beds per 1,000 people, it said.
Earlier this week, IFC made investment commitments for a couple of other projects in India. It proposed to put in $40.6 million (Rs 270 crore) in private equity firm Multiples Alternate Asset Management Pvt Ltd's second fund and to invest $38 million in three housing finance companies in India.