Manipal Education and Medical Group will raise $100-150 million through private equity placement in a month or two.
The leading private medical education group plans to utilise the proceeds for an overseas acquisition and for its greenfield initiatives in India.
The Manipal Group is also simultaneously raising $100 million through private equity for its hospital segment in the next three months, which it plans to deploy to roll out more hospitals in the country.
Several leading Indian and foreign private equity players, including ICICI Ventures, are in the race for the two investments.
IDFC Private Equity and Capital International had infused $70 million in Manipal Health Systems in 2006.
With the new investment, Manipal Group will go for a large overseas acquisition in the education space, expected to be finalised in the next three months. Besides, it has planned greenfield campuses in three Indian cities, of which Jaipur would start by this year-end.
Dr Ranjan Pai, chief executive officer, Manipal Group said, “We are not planning any other medical school in the country, owing to the unsupportive regulations in medical education. Our newer ventures have been planned to focus on other sectors like engineering and design, etc.”
As for the acquisition, Pai said they were targeting a university with a medical college as there were few for-profit medical education centres overseas, unlike in India.
The Manipal Group churns out about 2,000 doctors every year from its three medical schools in the country and campuses in Nepal, Malaysia and Caribbean Islands. The group also has a campus in Dubai that provides courses apart from medical.
As for the hospitals chain, the group plans to use the proceeds of the private equity inplacement over the next three years to get a pan-India presence and increase its bed capacity to 3,000 from the current 1,600.
The group is investing close to Rs250 crore in setting up a 350-bed tertiary care facility in Delhi, which would start operations this year-end. The group would also deploy the funds for expansion in its Bangalore facility and for its hospital under-construction in Malaysia.
“We are setting up a hospital in Jaipur and are planning facilities in Kolkata and Mumbai and are looking for options,” Pai added.
Source: DNA India