CONSOLIDATION IN HEALTHCARE
Dr Sandeep Budhiraja, Group Medical Director, Max Healthcare, joined the Analjit Singh-promoted hospital chain in January 2001 as a founder member. “I have seen the growth of Max, which started as a small ambulatory care centre at Panchsheel Park in New Delhi,” says Budhiraja. The veteran doctor now works under a new Chairman and Managing Director, 46-year-old Abhay Soi, formerly a turnaround and restructuring specialist with firms, including Arthur Anderson, EY and KPMG. “We are now the most profitable and fastest-growing healthcare company in India and the second largest in terms of revenue,” says Soi.
Veteran healthcare professional Dilip Jose was advising TPG Capital for close to two years, before taking over as Managing Director and CEO of Manipal Health Enterprises (MHEL) in early 2018. Prior to that, he was Group CEO at Hyderabad-based Care Hospitals. Now his former employer Care Hospitals has a new owner, Dubai-based private equity investor Abraaj Group. Within three years of joining Manipal from TPG, Jose executed a major acquisition — in November, the Ranjan Pai-led Manipal Health Enterprise bought out US-based Columbia Asia Hospital Group’s Indian assets for around ₹2,100 crore.
Indian healthcare is going through an unprecedented consolidation phase. Abhay Soi and Dilip Jose represent a new breed of professionals taking over the organised private healthcare sector in India, which was reeling under financial stress for the last three years, aggravated by Covid-19 in the last one year.
In the past, mainly doctor-turned entrepreneurs, including Dr Prathap Reddy of Apollo Hospitals, were building private healthcare chains, though mostly greenfield hub and spoke facilities funded with high-cost loans from banks. If Apollo showed the way with pan-India presence, former Ranbaxy Promoters Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh created a similar chain, giving competition to the pioneer. Regional chains, including Manipal, Max, Global and Care, were also competing with fast addition of new hospitals and beds in tertiary and super-specialty segments.
