VCCircle

ICICI Venture-funded diagnostic chain Metropolis Health Services is looking at acquisitions in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka, says a report in Business Standard. The Mumbai-based company, which recently formed a joint venture with Desai Clinical Laboratory in Surat, are in talks with laboratory firms in these states. These deals may not be very large - under Rs 10 crore, if what the report is anything to go by. It had earlier acquired Sanket Labs in Ahmedabad.
Metropolis is also believed to be looking at acquisitions overseas too in countries such as the US, Thailand or Vietnam and East Africa. But here it can spend as much as Rs 40-50 crore ($10-12.5 million), which would be raised from banks.
ICICI Venture had invested Rs 35-crore in the company last year. Diagnostic business is largely unorganised in India with some 45,000 labs. The business is said to be worth Rs 10,000 crore a year. Some of the organised players are LalPath Labs (funded by Sequoia Capital India) and SRL Ranbaxy.