Apollo Hospitals is in the final stages of bringing in a private equity (PE) investor consortium led by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Co (KKR) to support the expansion of the hospital chain.
Prathap C. Reddy, Chairman, Apollo Hospitals, said on Thursday the company was in the final stages of a deal with the consortium.
“Most of the terms have been agreed to, and we are working on the modalities to bring the investor into our family fund, and that will take some time,” he said.
Top executives at Apollo Hospitals say key details such as the size of the deal and the type of equity investment are still being worked out.
The fund arrives at a time when Apollo Hospitals is gearing up for an affordable healthcare drive across the country.
Sangita Reddy, Executive Director of the Group, had said in June that the company would spend about Rs 1,000 crore in the next 12 months.
The total debt required to fund the company’s expansion plan over the next three years is Rs 2,000 crore.
Apollo was well into the process of identifying land for its low-cost service arm, Apollo Reach, a “cookie-cutter model for the speedy roll out of healthcare,” said Reddy.
Each centre will have about 150 beds, to be scaled up to over 200 beds in the future.
The group boasted over 51 hospitals in the country with about 8,420 beds as of June 2013.