HealthCare Global Enterprises Limited (HCG), a speciality healthcare service provider focused on oncology, on Monday said it has divested 38.5 per cent stake (on a paid-up capital basis and 34.5 per cent on a fully diluted basis) in Strand Life Sciences to Reliance Industries for ₹157 crore.

In a statement, the company said it has acquired the oncology hospital labs and clinical trials business from Strand Lifesciences through a Business Transfer Agreement (BTA) for ₹81 crore with a set-off of ₹7 crore towards receivables. The transactions have resulted in a net cash inflow of ₹83 crore for HCG in addition to the take-over of the labs and clinical research business.

“With the acquisition of Strand’s hospital labs and clinical research business, HCG not only enhances in-house diagnostic and research capabilities and offerings but will also be able to drive higher awareness and adoption across the network and thus positively impact a much larger patient population. HCG also gets the ability to pursue clinical trials business in-house which given the diversity and scale of HCG Cancer operations would be an attractive proposition to build upon,” Dr BS Ajaikumar, Executive Chairman of HCG, said.

In January 2018, HCG had executed a business combination of its hospital labs and clinical trials business, which operated under the Triesta brand, with Strand’s clinical diagnostics vertical to jointly focus on specialised oncology space, which also led to HCG becoming the single largest shareholder in Strand. Subsequently, the newly combined Strand entity had raised capital from PE investors and also acquired Quest Labs India business, which was later divested during the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.

HCG has acquired hospital labs in over 12cities, which includes labs at the flagship COE (Center of Excellence) in Bengaluru, labs in Mumbai, Kolkata, Jaipur, Ahmedabad etc. and an ‘industry first’ digital pathology network. Digital pathology is a paradigm shift in approach to cancer cases. It not only ensures availing the expertise of subspecialist histopathologists reporting from anywhere without the physical transfer of slides and blocks, but also accurate primary diagnosis, helping in genomic, imaging and clinical data.

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