Kalpathi Investments picks up 45% stake in Primex Healthcare

Kalpathi Investments has picked up 45% stake for Rs 5.1 crore in the Chennai-based Primex healthcare, which has plans to set up over 50 premium quality diagnostic facilities at affordable cost across Tamil Nadu over the next 12 months.

It will start setting up scans and lab facilities in six locations in Chennai, before expanding into other cities and towns in the State. The Indian diagnostic services industry is projected to grow at a CAGR of over 20% in the next three years.

Targeted at all income groups starting from the lower-middle to the upper income group and corporates, Primex plans to offer high-end 1.5T MRI, multi-slice CT, high frequency digital X- ray, 3D ultrasound systems, computerised ECG, treadmill, PFT and EEG.

Kalpathi S. Suresh, Chairman, Kalpathi Investments said, “In the context of a growing population, an increasingly demanding lifestyle and improved per capita, there is a strong need for a bouquet of quality healthcare services at affordable prices. Diagnostic services is an important component of such an offering and Primex is a strategic investment for us that caters to this sector”.

Anand Mahadevan, CEO, Primex CEO, Anand Mahadeven, who has a rich technology back ground including a stint a Microsoft said, “Our aim is to make a difference in the healthcare industry by providing premium quality healthcare services at affordable prices for the ‘real India’. Diagnostics being a definitive step to initiate medical treatment, we have started our mission with Primex scans & labs.

The diagnostics space is seeing a lot of action in the last one year. According to data compiled Venture Intelligence, a research service focused on private equity and M&A, a total of $126 million of private equity money got invested across 4 deals from August 2009-August 2010. During the same period, there were 5 M & A deals in the diagnostics space.

“Healthcare has become a business of scale which requires a lot of investment. From a PE point of view, there are a lot of funds with health care focus and also more opportunities from a secondary transaction point of view as existing investors are looking at exit opportunities. So diagnostic services lend themselves to these investments,” said Arun Natarajan, founder, Venture Intelligence.

Source: Economic Times