Somerset Indus Capital invests in Cygnus Medicare

By Lohit Jagwani

  • 23 Apr 2013

Cygnus Medicare Pvt Ltd, which manages and operates hospitals in Delhi-NCR and Haryana, has secured an undisclosed amount from Somerset Indus Capital Partners. The company plans to use the funds to expand its hospitals across Delhi-NCR and Haryana.

“Our vision is to run centres for specialised surgeries in areas lacking super specialty care,” said Cygnus chairman Dinesh Batra.

Avinash Kenkare, partner at Somerset Indus Capital, has joined the board of Cygnus Medicare as part of the investment.

Currently, Cygnus operates seven hospitals under management contracts at various locations including Dwarka, Pitampura, Nangloi, Sonipat and Panipat, among others.

As part of its business strategy, the company has created a differentiated asset-light model by leasing the facilities and reducing dependence on specialised, expensive equipment by adopting an outsourced model for capital-intensive specialties while focusing on running hospital cores like OTs, ICUs, wards, nursing and OPDs.

Somerset Indus Capital manages a $50 million Mauritius-based fund, focused on making investments in the mid-market healthcare sector in India. It has earlier invested in two more companies in the healthcare space including Sandor Medicaids Pvt Ltd and Express Clinics Pvt Ltd.

The healthcare space, especially hospitals, attracted a slew of private equity investors who bet on the sector in India. Some of the big-ticket investments in the space included India Evolving Fund investing $180 million in Manipal Health Enterprises, Advent International Corp investing $110 million in Quality Care, and JPMorgan Partners and PineBridge Capital investing $100 million in Narayana Hrudayalaya, among others. Moolchand Healthcare Ltd, another Delhi-based healthcare firm, also got funding from Sequoia Capital sometime ago. It is now scouting for inorganic growth opportunities in the northern region.

(Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal)