Apax Partners acquires medical devices maker Healthium

Apax Partners Llp has acquired Bengaluru-based medical devices company Healthium MedTech Pvt. Ltd (formerly known as Sutures India).

The London-based private equity (PE) fund has acquired close to 100% stake from existing shareholders, including TPG Growth, CX Partners, and founding shareholders.

Though the size of the deal was not disclosed, the transaction is in range of $350 million, said a person aware of the development. TPG Growth owns around 73% in Healthium, while private equity fund CX Partners holds 12%. The rest is held by the promoters.

Mint reported in November that several PE funds, including Bain Capital Lp, Advent International Corp. and Carlyle Group are in a race to acquire surgical equipment maker Sutures India in a deal worth about $425 million.

Healthium, which makes surgical and wound-closure products such as natural and synthetic, absorbable and non-absorbable sutures, surgical needles, staples, tapes and bone wax, competes with firms such as Smith and Nephew Plc, Ethicon Inc. and ConvaTec.

TPG Growth invested in Sutures in 2013 by acquiring a 23% stake from CX Partners and the firm’s promoters for ₹145 crore. Over time, TPG raised its stake and now holds a majority in Sutures.

CX Partners had acquired a 37% stake in Sutures for about ₹200 crore in 2012 by buying out the entire stake held by India Life Sciences Fund.

Founded in 1992, Sutures exports products to 91 countries in Europe, South America, Africa and Asia.

It also supplies to over 10,000 hospitals across India.

Backed by Apax, Healthium plans to further deepen its presence in the Indian market and broaden its portfolio of specialty medtech products, said the company statement.

“Healthcare is a key focus area for Apax in India, given secular tailwinds around healthcare spend and government initiatives focused on affordable and universal healthcare,” said Shashank Singh, partner at Apax Partners and head of Apax’s India office.

“The opportunity is to create a medtech platform of scale to deliver a broad portfolio of products in the Indian market, and we are excited to partner with the management team of Healthium to deliver this vision,” he added.

The investment in Healthium marks the second investment in the healthcare space by Apax in India, following the investment in Apollo Hospitals.