After cement, Adani to foray into healthcare

Billionaire Gautam Adani's group has created a new company for its foray into healthcare services through the acquisition of large hospitals, diagnostic chains, and offline and digital pharmacies.

Adani Enterprises Ltd - the group's business incubator firm - in a regulatory filing said a wholly-owned subsidiary, Adani Health Ventures Ltd (AHVL) was incorporated on May 17, 2022.

AVHL will "carry on the business of healthcare-related activities including, inter alia, setting up, running, administrating medical and diagnostic facilities, health aids, health tech-based facilities, research centers and to do all other allied and incidental activities in this regard," it said.

AHVL, it said, will commence its business operations in due course.

The group, which runs businesses from seaports to airports and energy, forayed into the cement sector through the acquisition of Swiss cement maker Holcim's India operations for a total of $10.5 billion.

For its healthcare foray, the group reportedly has been in talks with big names in the sector and may invest up to $4 billion.

It and Piramal Healthcare are reportedly in the race to buy the public sector pharmaceutical firm, HLL Lifecare Ltd (HLL).

The government had in December 2021 decided to sell a 100 per cent stake of the company to private entities.

As many as seven initial bids have been received for the company.

The healthcare space in India is quite fragmented with the market dominated by local and regional players.

In recent years, the online pharmacy space has witnessed a surge in mergers and acquisitions, like Reliance Industries Ltd acquiring a majority stake in online pharmacy Netmeds for Rs 620 crore.

Tata Group has also forayed into the online pharmacy business with its app, Tata1mg.

Some have seen healthcare as another sector where Adani and billionaire Mukesh Ambani clash but the two have different lines of business - the former is looking to build healthcare infrastructure and the latter wants to strengthen the retail chain.