VPS Health buys controlling stake in Rockland Hospitals for ₹1,000 crore

NEW DELHI: UAE-based VPS Healthcare has entered the Indian healthcare industry by acquiring a majority stake in Rockland Hospitals.

The company said on Tuesday that it has invested more than ₹1,000 crore in four of Rockland’s hospitals located at Qutub Institutional area, Dwarka and Manesar (in the national capital region) and Lakeshore Hospital in Kochi, Kerala.

The company will reposition the hospitals as VPS-Lakeshore and VPS-Rockland, apart from strengthening infrastructure with additional doses of investments, it said in a press statement. The group also plans to establish a high-end tertiary care institution in Noida.

“The investment climate in India is very conducive,” said vice-president Shamsheer, chairman and managing director, VPS Healthcare. “With over 20% of the global disease burden, exploding epidemic of non-communicable disease and ever-increasing gap in providing quality healthcare, India became a natural choice for our expansion.”

VPS is a healthcare conglomerate in the West Asia that has 16 high-end hospitals and more than 100 primary care medical centres.

The trend of larger hospital chains acquiring the smaller ones is getting popular.

In January, this year, Dubaibased Abraaj Group, an emerging markets focussed private equity group, had acquired a controlling 72% stake in Hyderabadbased CARE Hospitals for ₹2,000 crore. It was the largest healthcare services deal in the country and also the largest foreign direct investment for a controlled transaction by any Gulf based entity into India.

Last year, Max Healthcare had acquired a 76% stake in Pushpanjali Crosslay Hospital in the outskirt of Delhi for ₹287 crore.