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Dr. Agarwal’s Health Care Ltd. has raised $80 million (₹650 crore) in a fresh round of funding from global private equity firm TPG Growth and Singapore-based global investment company, Temasek.
The latest funding comes a year after the two global investors pumped in ₹1,050 crore in the Chennai-based eye-care chain in May 2022.
In an exclusive interaction with businessline, Prof. Amar Agarwal, Chairman, Dr. Agarwal’s Group of Eye Hospitals, said the new investments will be used to expand the eyecare chain’s footprint in both India and abroad along with investments in acquiring latest technologies for super-specialty eyecare.
Also Read | Dr Agarwal’s Health Care raises ₹1,050 crore from TPG Growth, Temasek
“We will be doubling our network of hospitals to over 300 in the next three years, which means we will be adding one hospital per week,” Agarwal said.
He added that the company will be investing ₹1,200 in network expansion including the current fundraise proceeds, internal accruals, debt fund raise in the future.
Started with one facility in Chennai in 1957, Dr. Agarwal’s Group of Eye Hospitals today has a network of 151 centres (including 140 hospitals and 11 eye clinics) spread across India and Africa supported by over 500 ophthalmologists and 3,500 employees.
In the last one year, Dr. Agarwal’s has been expanding its presence aggressively in its key markets like Tamil Nadu and Karnataka as well as newer markets like Maharashtra. The company made a slew of acquisitions in Maharashtra including Aditya Jyot Eye Hospital at Mumbai’s Wadala, five more eye hospitals in Pune. It also acquired five hospitals each in Punjab and Haryana.
Currently, Dr. Agarwal’s has 20 hospitals in Maharashtra out of which only one is greenfield while rest of it came through acquisitions. The eyecare chain is now focussing on such expansions in Delhi, National Capital Region (NCR) and Uttar Pradesh.
“Our expansion will be a mix of both greenfields and brownfields (acquisitions),” Agarwal said, adding that the acquisition offers the advantage of scaling up faster in the newer geographies. “We will get an in-built facility, staff, patients and doctors. All we need to do is to expand it further,” he added.
Also Read | Dr Agarwal’s Eye Hospitals charts ₹1,000-crore network expansion plan
Adil Agarwal, CEO, Dr. Agarwal’s Group of Eye Hospitals said, the investment will be used to acquire small hospitals and chains as well as greenfield expansion of its network. “We will also be establishing over 100 primary eye clinics in tier 2 and tier 3 towns in the next couple of years.
Adil said, Africa is another important geography Dr. Agarwal’s has a network of 15 hospitals across Kenya, Zambia, and Tanzania. “We will be doubling the number of hospitals to 30 in Africa in three years,” he added.
Meanwhile, shares of Dr. Agarwal’s Eye Hospitals were trading at ₹1,877 on BSE, 4 per cent higher than previous day’s closing price.
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