Zydus Hospitals has reportedly acquired one of the dozen hospitals of Columbia Asia Hospitals for an undisclosed amount. Columbia Asia stated that it sold its only hospital in Ahmedabad (Gujarat), of 90 beds, set up in 2014.
Zydus already has two hospitals in Gujarat which is a 650-bed unit in Ahmedabad and the other one in Anand. With this, Columbia Asia has plans to relocate its employees at the Ahmedabad unit to its other hospitals in the country.
Zydus Hospitals is the family-funded business of the promoters of listed pharmaceuticals company Cadila Healthcare Ltd.
On the other hand, Columbia Asia is a hospital chain that was founded in 1994. All the hospitals of Columbia Asia have been set up by the firm itself, which will be open to acquiring hospitals as well.
The remaining 11 hospitals of the company are mostly in Bengaluru. Also, the company is planning to open a new hospital in Pune.
The venture that advised Columbia Asia on this transaction was investment bank Indium Capital Advisors. India’s hospital sector has witnessed a flurry of investments this year.
The Modi government’s ambitious Ayushman Bharat programme, which is a health insurance scheme promises to make quality healthcare services available to over 500 million citizens in the country, is also expected to boost the hospital industry.
Talking about other investments in this sector, Fortis Healthcare Ltd accepted a proposal from Malaysia’s IHH Healthcare Berhad to inject Rs 7,300 crore in July making it the largest investment in India’s growing healthcare sector.
According to global accounting firm Deloitte, the $100 billion Indian healthcare market is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 23% to $280 billion by 2020, encouraged by increased digital adoption.