Hospital operator Properco SA is in talks with MO Alternate Investment Advisors and Paragon Partners, said one of the people, who asked not to be named.
New Delhi: A clutch of institutional investors including development finance institutions and private equity funds are in talks to invest in Cygnus Medicare Pvt. Ltd that operates hospital chain Ujala Cygnus Healthcare Services, the two people said.
Hospital operator Properco SA is in talks with MO Alternate Investment Advisors and Paragon Partners, said one of the people, who asked not to be named.
The firm plans to raise ₹150-200 crore to provide an exit to some of its backers.
A spokesperson for Ujala Cygnus called the development "speculation". Email queries sent to potential investors and Ernst & Young went unanswered till press time.
However, in an interview with The Economic Times on 22 December, a spokesperson for Ujala Cygnus confirmed the fundraising exercise and said the closure is expected by February 2023.
The company counts Eight Rhodes Ventures India, Evolve India Fund and Somerset Indus Healthcare Fund among its institutional backers. Mint, however, could not immediately ascertain which of these investors were looking to exit their investments.
The company has appointed the investment banking arm of EY to scout for potential investors, said the second person, who also requested anonymity.
The startup is looking to raise capital at a post-money valuation of at least ₹1,000 crore.
In November 2019, Eight Roads Ventures and Somerset Indus partially exited after Amar Ujala acquired a majority stake in the company.
Established in 2011, Cygnus operates 18 hospitals in 15 tier-II and tier-III cities of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir and Delhi, and has over 300 doctors and medical specialists, according to its website .
The hospital chain provides services in over 30 verticals such as kidney and liver transplant, oncology, urology, gastroenterology, orthopedics, nephrology, reconstructive surgery, diabetes etc. and claims to have served over 1 million patients till date.
The Indian healthcare sector has seen a surge in dealmaking activity recently. Last month, VCCircle reported that three domestic funds were investing in the fundraising round of Shree Kaveri Medical Care Pvt. Ltd., which runs the Kaveri Hospital chain
In August, south India-focused in-vitro fertilization (IVF) chain Oasis Center for Reproductive Medicine raised $50 million in an equity round of funding from homegrown PE firm Kedara Capital. While ASG Hospital and Dr Agarwal's Health Care International Finance Corp-backed eyecare chain were frontrunners to acquire Eye-Q Vision. In July, ASG raised a round of ₹1,500 crore led by General Atlantic and Kedara Capital.
This comes after Dr Agarwal raised ₹1,050 crore PE fundraiser in May. Both the companies plan to make acquisitions in addition to building on their organic growth strategy.
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