Nephrocare Health Services that operates a chain of dialysis centres under the NephroPlus brand, has acquired DaVita Care India in the latest sign of consolidation in a sector that has recorded private equity interest.
Following the acquisition, NephroPlus will acquire DaVita India’s network of 22 centers. These centres will be rebranded to Neproplus in a month’s time as stated by the company.
Vikram Vuppala, founder and CEO at NephroPlus did not disclose the financial details of the deal, however, stated that DaVita India’s annual turnover is around Rs 50 crore.
DaVita India posted net sales of Rs 29 crore for the year through March 2017, up from Rs 22 crore the year before. It posted a net loss of Rs 19.9 crore, compared with Rs 15 crore the year before.
Prior to this, US-based DaVita Inc had entered India by acquiring Bangalore-based renal care services provider NephroLife Care in 2012. Venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates had come in as an investor in the company.
NephroPlus was founded by Vuppala, Sandeep Gudibanda and Kamal Shah in 2009. It has 154 dialysis centres in 92 cities across India.
The company plans to enter foreign markets in the next one year by opening centres in South Asia and the Middle East, said Vuppala.
This year has so far seen two private equity deals in the segment. This is the second acquisition in the dialysis segment, which had got a shot in the arm when the government said in the 2016 budget that funds for the National Dialysis Services Programme will be made available through the public-private-partnership mode under the National Health Mission.