Devi Shetty-promoted Narayana Health (formerly known as Narayana Hrudayalaya) has acquired Westbank Hospital in Howrah, West Bengal, for Rs 150 crore ($24.27 million), the company said in a release.
This is the second acquisition by Narayana Health Group in West Bengal this year after it acquired Jubilant’s hospital business in Barasat & Berhampore in March.
The acquisition of Westbank Hospital includes the management of the 150 bed Westbank Hospital Unit-I and 240 bed Westbank Hospital Unit-II, in Howrah. Post this, Narayana Health will offer comprehensive cancer care facilities at Westbank, in addition to the upgrade of the other tertiary care specialties there.
Bangalore-based Narayana Health, which operates a chain of multispecialty and super specialty hospitals in the country, started with a 300-bed hospital in 2001. It had already been managing the Cardiac Centre at Westbank Unit-II since 2012. With this addition, the Narayana Health network has grown to 29 hospitals across 17 cities in India with a combined bed strength of around 7,500.
“In addition to retaining the current employee strength of close to 700, we will strategically strengthen it further,†said Ashutosh Raghuvanshi, vice-chairman, MD & Group CEO, Narayana Health.
“The acquisition of Westbank Hospitals will create a new benchmark for medical care in this region. It’s our ongoing endeavour to make the state a leading tertiary healthcare hub, to address the growing medical needs of people in West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, North-East states and even neighbouring countries such as Bangladesh," he said.
Allegro Corporate Finance Advisors acted as the sole financial advisor to Narayana Health on this acquisition.
Narayana Health's other hospitals across West Bengal include Rabindranath Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences (RTIICS) at Mukundapur, Kolkata; Narayana Multispeciality Hospital in Barasat; Rabindranath Thakur Medical & Diagnostic Centre in Berhampur; Rabindranath Tagore Surgical Centre in Highland Park, Kolkata; Rotary Narayana Multispeciality Hospital in Salt Lake; and IQ City Narayana Multispeciality Hospital at Durgapur.
Founded in 1995, Westbank Hospital is a multi-specialty hospital, offers gynaecology, ophthalmology, oncology, surgery, paediatrics, cardiology, psychiatry, dermatology, medicine, neurology, chest medicine, gastroenterology and orthopaedics services. The hospital was a part of Meridian Medical Research & Hospital Ltd, a public limited company.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)