Milestone Religare invests Rs 31.2 cr in HCG

The HealthCare Global Enterprises Ltd (HCG), a Bangalore-headquartered pan-India chain of super-speciality cancer care hospital chain, has received it’s fourth private equity investment. This time, it’s an investment of Rs 31.2 crore from Milestone Religare Investment Advisors Ltd, a joint venture between Milestone Group and Religare Enterprises for an undisclosed stake in the hospital chain. HCG has so far received PE funding from PremjiInvest of around Rs 40 crore, from IDFC of Rs 55 crore and from Evolvence, Rs 25 crore.

Milestone Religare has made the investment from the India Build-Out Fund-I, which is a Rs 600 crore private equity fund focussing on education and healthcare infrastructure. This takes Milestone Religare’s investment in the healthcare sector to around Rs 100 crore. Equirus Capital acted as the advisor to HCG on this transaction.

It’s the sheer opportunity that has been attracting investments into the healthcare and education sectors from private equity investors lately in the country. “The Indian healthcare sector is on a growth path. Along with an increase in chronic diseases, there is an increasing incidence of lifestyle -related diseases. There are over 3 million cancer patients in the country,” said Rajesh Sehgal, managing partner of Milestone Religare.

Dr Amit Verma, board and investment committee member of Milestone Religare, who will be joining the board of HCG said, “Though the Indian healthcare industry is over $55 billion in size currently, the existing infrastructure is inadequate. Cancer care is largely restricted to 24 government-funded regional centres and a few private players. Cervical, breast and oral cancer account for half of all cases and all are treatable forms of cancer. However, more than 80 per cent of the cases are detected at advanced stages due to inadequate facilities.”

HCG, an enterprise driven by doctors, is one of South Asia’s largest oncology care networks with 20 cancer treatment centres across India. “The investment from Milestone Religare will help us improve the accessibility of cancer treatment across multiple cities in Asia,” said Dr B S Ajaikumar, chairman, HCG Enterprises Ltd.

The healthcare chain today has 1,250 beds across the country. In a year’s time it aims to add another 300 beds. HCG also operates CyberKnife, a radiation treatment for cancer. The group has seen revenues of around Rs 190 crore last year and hopes to end this fiscal with revenues of around Rs 220 crore, a growth of over 15.80 per cent.