From big buyouts to big IPOs: private equity's hospital pivot

PE investors are focusing on new hospital chains with operations in multiple cities

- Rwit Ghosh

After years of aggressive dealmaking, private equity (PE) firms have slowed their hospital investments in India, opting instead to leverage the improved financials of multi-and single-speciality chains and take them public.

PE investments in Indian hospital chains have dropped to $142 million so far this year from about $1.15 billion in 2024 and $3.6 billion in 2023, shows data from Venture Intelligence. The number of deals has dropped to six this year from eight last year and 11 in 2023.

The largest PE deals in Indian hospitals were both in 2023: Temasek and TPG Capital's $2.4 billion investment in Manipal Hospitals, and Blackstone's $700 million cheque to Care Hospitals.

"Most of the larger hospital chains have the scale and size, which makes them appropriate for listing soon," said Sunil Thakur, partner at healthcare-focused PE firm Quadria Capital.

It isn't like mega hospital deals have completely vanished. In February, global investment firm KKR announced its plan to buy a controlling stake in cancer treatment chain Healthcare Global Enterprises Ltd (HCG), amounting to $400 million.

(HCG is a listed company; Venture Intelligence has only considered completed transactions in private companies for its PE investment data.)