MUMBAI: Leading super specialty eye-care chain ASG Eye Hospital, which is planning a Rs 1,000-crore fundraise through a primary share sale or private placement over the next 12-18 months, has lined up a Rs 2,000-crore capex plan to treble its footprint to 600-700 clinics, from around 200 now, through 2030.
The hospital chain was launched 20 years ago by Dr Arun Singhvi, who is the managing director and chief executive, with the first clinic in Jaipur. It is now majority (70%) owned by General Atlantic and Kedaara Capital (who between them put in $188 million in July 2022) and Foundation Holdings, which also entered in the same year. Its first investor was Sequea Capital in 2013 which pumped in Rs 40 crore and exited in 2019.
The remaining 30% is held by Dr Singhvi who said he has no plans to dilute it further as and when the fund-raise happens.
“Our plan is to reach every district in the country by 2030. Currently we are present in 175 full-feldged clinics in 75 cities across 24 states. By next March, we should be operating 220 clinics and by 2030, we should have 600-700 clinics or a presence in all the districts,” Dr Singhvi told reporters here Thursday.
On the revenue side, he said they are likely to close the current fiscal with Rs 1,500 crore in topline, up from Rs 1,142 crore in the past fiscal. The company, which follows a partnership model with other standalone clinics or doctors, has been profitable for many years now and has a cash balance of Rs 400 crore, he said.
He also said the company has just entered into a binding agreement with the New Delhi-based Sharp Sight Eye Hospital, which operates 17 clinics across the northern states, to purchase 100% equity in the facility for Rs 400 crore.
Dr Singhvi said the deal, which is set to be completed in a month or two, will be carried out through a mix of share swap and cash, managed from internal accruals.
Once completed, this will be the 26th acquisition that Dr Singhvi has completed, with the largest being the Tamil Nadu-based Vasan Eyecare, which was acquired through the bankruptcy process in 2023 and was turned cash positive within a year.
He said the focus will be more on small towns as the core of the expansion strategy is to reach every district to address the unmet demand in under-served markets.
Dr Singhvi has a three-pillar strategy for expansion combining 8-10 targeted acquisitions annually with 5-7 new organic multispeciality centres and 100 district centres each year to accelerate market consolidation while maintaining clinical quality.
He said, excluding rentals and other overhead costs, each clinic will need around Rs 5 crore investment.
Dr Singhvi said since over 80% of vision loss is preventable, the expansion is a mission to end unnecessary blindness. "We are taking world class eye care out of the metropolitan hubs and into the heartland, where the need is more acute," he said.
