Nova IVF Fertility, which is owned by TPG Growth's single-speciality healthcare platform Asia Healthcare Holdings (AHH), has acquired a majority stake in Southend Fertility IVF.
The investment will help Nova expand its presence in the National Capital Region (NCR), it said in a statement without disclosing financial details of the transaction.
Post this transaction, Nova and Southend together will have four in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) centres including embryology labs, network of spoke centres, a team of senior IVF clinicians and a capacity to perform more than 3,500 IVF cycles annually in that region.
Nova was launched in 2011 through its decade-long collaboration with IVI Spain. It was acquired by AHH in May 2019.
It currently operates 29 fertility centres across 23 cities including Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Coimbatore, Hisar, Hyderabad, Indore, Jalandhar, Lucknow, Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata, Pune, Raipur, Surat, Vijayawada, Patna, Ranchi, and Siliguri.
The IVF market in India is highly fragmented with both domestic firms and a handful of foreign companies offering their services. Besides Nova, there is Bourn Hall India, part of the UK-based healthcare services firm Bourn Hall International. Bourn Hall India is backed by private equity firm TVM Capital MENA.
In another deal in the space, in April 2019, US-based private equity firm TA Associates acquired a significant minority stake in Indira IVF Hospital Pvt. Ltd. Another PE-backed player in the space is Oasis Centre for Reproductive Medicine.
Besides specialised IVF firms, Indian healthcare providers such as Cloudnine Hospitals, mainly focused on birthing, and Rainbow Hospitals, which chiefly provides paediatric services, also offer IVF services. Large hospital chains including Apollo Hospitals and Max Healthcare, too, offer IVF services.