NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Dubai-based private equity investor Abraaj Group has agreed to acquire a majority stake in Quality CARE India Ltd, which runs chain of CARE Hospitals in the country, from private equity firm Advent International, according to a statement.

US-based Advent had bought the controlling 72% stake in Hyderabad-based CARE Hospitals for $105 million from investors including Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, Nimmagadda Prasad (founder of Matrix Labs) and UK-based Ashmore in 2012. The remaining stake is held by some of the doctors at the hospital.

Abraaj was reportedly competing with Temasek Holdings of Singapore for Advent’s stake in CARE. In fact, Temasek had earlier partnered with TPG Growth for the deal, but the latter backed out a few weeks ago as it was not comfortable with the terms of the deal including pricing.

“Led by dedicated founders and a strong management team, CARE has been a pioneer in providing quality healthcare to middle and low income patients in India, and has the potential for further expansion domestically and internationally. We are excited to partner with one of India’s leading healthcare providers and contribute to developing more robust health systems in growth markets,” said Sev Vettivetpillai, partner and global head of Abraaj’s Thematic Funds Business.