Investcorp buys stake in Wuhan medical specialist Kindstar
Alternative asset manager Investcorp, listed in Bahrain, is making a strategic investment in Chinese medical testing specialist Kindstar Globalgene.
The deal with Kindstar, based in Wuhan, is part of the company’s plan to diversify its Asian portfolio and invest further in China, the world’s second-largest economy, Investcorp said yesterday. It did not give further details of the transaction.
Investcorp recently launched a platform focused on investing in high- quality Chinese healthcare companies that remained resilient throughout the pandemic and are on track for accelerated growth.
“Our focus on healthcare opportunities in China allowed us to identify Kindstar, which has built impressive capabilities for improving the quality of health care through severe diseases-related testing,” said Hazem Ben-Gacem, co-chief executive of Investcorp.
“We believe that Kindstar has significant growth potential driven by accelerating demand for precision medicine, [an] underserved market and the company’s broadening advanced solutions to address an even wider range of speciality healthcare needs.”
In September, Investcorp acquired minority equity stakes in Lu Daopei Medical Group, a haematology hospitals group in China, and WeDoctor, an online healthcare services company. Kindstar offers patients and physicians broad access to advanced testing services across haematology, gynaecology and paediatrics, infectious diseases, oncology and neurology. It serves more than 3,000 hospitals across 600 cities in China.
The company is among China’s leading medical testing operators with an international network and serves clients such as the Mayo Clinic, Illumina and Novartis.
Investcorp is a global investment manager, specialising in alternative investments across private equity, real estate, private credit and absolute return strategies.
The company plans to invest $4 billion on property acquisitions in the US and Europe over the next two years, Jon Dracos, head of real estate investment at Investcorp told earlier this month.