Trivitron Healthcare looks to raise upto $50 mn through PE route

Last year the company got commitments of $75 million anchored by Fidelity Growth Partners India

Trivitron Healthcare, the Chennai-based medical devices manufacturer, is looking to raise anywhere between $30-$50 million through the private equity route in the near future.

This move by Trivitron Healthcare to raise additional funds comes hardly with a year after it got commitments of $75 million anchored by Fidelity Growth Partners India. Trivitron, prior to Fidelity, had raised funds from ePlanet Ventures and Headland Capital, who partially exited during the last round.

Trivitron, which posted revenues of Rs 600 crore for the last fiscal, has been expanding rapidly in various geographies and has drawn out a blue-print to have a strong presence in the imaging and lab diagnostics segments through organic growth as well as through acquisition of companies and technologies in Europe and the United States. The management of Trivitron said that their Board of Directors is not considering fresh fund raise as of now.

In addition to expanding its presence at global locations, the fresh inflow of funds will also be used to an extent for the Trivitron Medical Technology Park, a 25-acre manufacturing facility in Chennai and which is mapped to house over 15 different medical technology manufacturing facilities of Trivitron’s subsidiaries and joint ventures.

Trivitron’s joint ventures with Hitachi-Aloka (Japan) for manufacturing ultrasound equipment and with Biosystems (Spain) for lab diagnostics reagents are already operational. The company has recently set up centres of innovation for biomedical equipment in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras and under the leadership of its Director (R&D), Prof. Bhuvaneshwar, a well recognized innovator in this area.

Trivitron was founded in 1997 by Dr G S K Velu after his stint as the Country Head for Chiron Diagnostics, before embarking on an entrepreneurial journey. In addition to Trivitron, Dr Velu has co-founded and built a pan-India path lab chain, Metropolis Healthcare, as well as Medfort, a chain of single specialty, eye-care and diabetes-care hospitals.

He has also co-founded a joint venture with the Apollo Hospitals Group for dental clinics(Apollo White) and dialysis centres (Apollo Dialysis).

This move by Trivitron to raise fresh funds comes at a time when many more private equity fund are looking to invest in the entire value of healthcare chain. The healthcare and life sciences sector witnessed a 66% growth in the value of investments, seeing an increase from $130 million in Q1 of 2013 to $215 million in Q2 of 2013, according to data from PwC.