Private equity firm Samara Capital along with the family offices of business houses Havells and Godrej has formed a healthcare platform to operate multispeciality hospitals.
The platform -- Marengo Asia Healthcare -- commits to deploy sizeable pool of capital in investing and partnering with hospitals in India, said Abhishek Kabra, managing director, Samara Capital, in a statement without specifying the amount.
Marengo Asia Healthcare will be managed by Raajiv Singhal, who has over 25 years of experience in the healthcare industry. Prior to this, Singhal was Group CEO of Care Hospitals, backed by Evercare Health Fund that is managed by US private equity firm TPG. Earlier, he worked with Fortis Escorts Heart Institute Delhi and served on boards of hospitals across Bangladesh (Apollo Dhaka) and South Africa (JMH group).
"Marengo Asia Healthcare will be a preferred place of working for all professionals, both medical and non-medical, who are committed to the principle of ‘Patient First’", said Singhal.
Since 2007, Samara Capital has invested over $1.5 billion across sectors including consumer products and retail, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, business services and banking and financial services.
One of its prominent investments in the healthcare space has been in Thyrocare Technologies, which became the second company from the diagnostics sector to list on the stock exchanges in 2016. Earlier in June, PharmEasy signed a definitive agreement to acquire a majority stake in Thyrocare in a defining deal that saw a startup buying a traditional listed company in India.
Samara Capital also invested in India's largest cardiac stent maker Sahajanand Medical Technologies Ltd (SMT), which filed for initial public offering (IPO) last month. Its other investments in healthcare sector includes Mumbai-based medical consumables maker Lotus Surgical Specialities Pvt Ltd and Gurgaon-based Guardian Lifecare.
Besides, Samara Capital also has a pharma platform founded by former Lupin executive RS Raghav in 2015. Samara had used Oaknet as a platform to acquire the India business of Johannesburg-listed drugmaker Adcock Ingram Holdings Ltd for Rs 151 crore in April 2016. Subsequently, the entire Adcock portfolio was brought under the Oaknet brand.
The private equity firm is also part of PAG Asia Capital-led consortium’s strategy to create a platform for the development and production of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). In October last year, the consortium agreed to acquire a controlling stake in bulk-drugs maker Anjan Drug Pvt. Ltd.
