New Delhi: Novo Holdings, a ₹142 billion investment firm that controls drug maker Novo Nordisk, has entered into exclusive talks to acquire a 49 per cent stake in Mumbai-based Surya Hospitals, said people familiar with the matter.
A potential deal could peg the enterprise value of Surya Hospitals at ₹1,000 crore, they said. Kedaara Partners, and LeapFrog Investments had also made non-binding offers for Surya, said the people cited above. The hospital chain’s existing shareholders are paediatrician Bhupendra Avasthi and former KKR India private equity head Heramb Hajarnavis’s SCP Investments.
Surya Hospitals runs hospitals in Mumbai, Pune, and Jaipur, per its website. The hospital chain specialises in treating women and children. Avasthi and Novo Holdings partner Navjeewan Khosla did not respond to queries. Kedaara Partners and LeapFrog did not comment.
The impending deal signals intensified consolidation activity in the hospital space in India marked by active participation from financial investors such as private equity firms.
Recently, Ranjan Pai-led Manipal Hospitals bought out Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan-owned Sahyadri Hospitals for ₹6,400 crore paying over 30 times that company’s operating profits for the acquisition. Several others including Blackstone-backed Aster DM healthcare, Fortis Hospitals, Carlyle and EQT Partners were in competition to acquire Maharashtra-headquartered Sahyadri.
KKR took a controlling stake in Kerala-based Baby Memorial Hospital for ₹2,000 crore in July 2024. Baby Memorial has a single speciality focus like Surya, focusing on paediatrics.
Novo Holdings has been ramping up its India focus with a recent co-investment it made with TPG Capital wherein they both acquired a 35% stake in pharmaceutical packaging company Schott Poonawalla. It is also an investor in diagnostic services company Medgenome. Surya Hospitals posted revenues of ₹170 crore in FY24, per the latest available data from the Registrar of Companies.
In other mergers and acquisitions in the sector, Blackstone merged its hospital platform Quality Care with Aster DM Healthcare in November 2024.
India’s hospital sector has witnessed a surge in foreign direct investment (FDI), reflecting growing global investor interest. In FY24, hospitals attracted half of the total healthcare FDI of $1.5 billion, a sharp rise from 24% in FY21 and 43% in FY20, as per industry estimates.
