Bain Capital, the private equity firm based in Boston, USA and specialized in alternative financial services submitted an offer to buy 47% shares in a large Indian hospital group sold to the South African group Life Healthcare, concordant media sources reveal.  

Should the information be confirmed, this new offer would compete with others such as the one, announced previously, involving KKR, another private equity firm interested in these shares.

Let’s remind that about half of Max Healthcare’s shares, the Indian group whose shares are to be sold, are owned by Life Healthcare, the second largest hospital group operating in South Africa.

The share selling project was published for the first time in January 2018 and confirmed in the Q1, 2018 financial reports. For the time being, there is no cue on the offers received but, we are aware that Life Healthcare wants to sell shares which have already generated an important potential capital gain and whose value is now dropping in a context marked by tightening regulations in the Indian hospital sector.

According to the figures published in its 2017 financial report, Life Healthcare invested ZAR2.9 billion (about $200 million), to acquire shares ( estimated at 49.7%) in the Indian hospital group. Presently however, these shares are valued at between $450 million and $540 million.

Idriss Linge