Indian Stock Market

Kalpathi Investments has picked up 45% stake in Primex Labs and scans.

Primex healthcare, which has plans to set up over 50 premium quality diagnostic facilities at affordable cost across Tamil Nadu over the next 12 months.

It will start setting up scans and lab facilities in six locations in Chennai, before expanding into other cities and towns in the State. The Indian diagnostic services industry is projected to grow at a CAGR of over 20% in the next three years.

Targeted at all income groups starting from the lower-middle to the upper income group and corporates, Primex plans to offer high-end 1.5T MRI, multi-slice CT, high frequency digital X- ray, 3D ultrasound systems, computerised ECG, treadmill, PFT and EEG.

Kalpathi S. Suresh, Chairman, Kalpathi Investments said, “In the context of a growing population, an increasingly demanding lifestyle and improved per capita, there is a strong need for a bouquet of quality healthcare services at affordable prices. Diagnostic services is an important component of such an offering and Primex is a strategic investment for us that caters to this sector”.

Anand Mahadevan, CEO, Primex CEO, Anand Mahadeven, who has a rich technology back ground including a stint a Microsoft said, “Our aim is to make a difference in the healthcare industry by providing premium quality healthcare services at affordable prices for the ‘real India’. Diagnostics being a definitive step to initiate medical treatment, we have started our mission with Primex scans & labs.

The diagnostics space is seeing a lot of action in the last one year. According to data compiled Venture Intelligence, a research service focused on private equity and M&A, a total of $126 million of private equity money got invested across 4 deals from August 2009-August 2010. During the same period, there were 5 M & A deals in the diagnostics space.

Apollo Hospitals and StemCyte are in a tie up for stem cell facility in Hyderabad besides conducting research development activities at its Hyderabad centre.

Stem cells can be sourced from umbilical cord blood and bone marrow and are used in medical therapies. They can be grown and transformed into specialised cells for future therapies.

“The idea is to undertake intensive research and provide personalised medicine in future for patients. It’s a 50:50 joint venture and will carry out research in several areas including chronic stroke, spinal cord injury and muscular dystrophy,” said Dr Pratap C Reddy, Chairman, Apollo Hospitals Group.

While phase I involves $15 million, both companies would pump in capital as required.

The upcoming facility, which will focus on stem cell culturing, trials and research, will be the fourth such unit for StemCyte. It currently has three facilities, one each in the US, HongKong and South Korea. Apollo also said it has also tied up with Quintiles to start clinical trials unit at Apollo Health City in Hyderabad. It had earlier announced $10 million investment in this venture. The company is waiting for regulatory approvals to conduct first in human (FIH) studies.
Apollo is also conducting a study to assess the reasons for widespread CardioVascular Diseases (CVDs) in India. “Many young patients these days are prone to cardiac arrests. We want to assess why Indians are predisposed to cardiovascular diseases at an younger age,” said Reddy adding that Apollo performed 9,800 cardiac surgeries last year alone. The hospital chain is working with the Institute of Genetic Engineering and Integrative Biology and National Institute of Biomedical Genomics in this regard. As part of its 2014 growth strategy, Apollo will invest Rs 2,200 crore to create 3,000 new beds.

Singapore’s securities regulator has given India’s Fortis Healthcare until July 30 to say whether it intends to make a full offer for hospital operator Parkway Holdings.

Wednesday’s statement from the Securities Industry Council (SIC) came a day after Fortis Healthcare said it was keeping its options open over a counterbid for Parkway, the subject of a partial takeover bid by Malaysian sovereign fund Khazanah.

Fortis, which already holds roughly 25 per cent of Parkway, will have to offer over $2.3 billion to buy the rest of it.

Fortis had wanted to build a controlling stake in the Singapore company before Khazanah made a surprise $835 million offer last month to lift its stake from 23.5 per cent to 51.5 per cent. Both Fortis and Khazanah want to use the Singapore firm to spearhead their regional expansion into healthcare.

For a FACTBOX on Parkway, click “Parkway shareholders should be given sufficient information, advice and time to enable them to reach an informed decision on the partial offer,” SIC said in a statement.

Fortis has appointed Australia’s Macquarie and Indian financial services group Religare to help it raise funds for a possible counterbid, sources told Reuters on Tuesday.

An SIC spokesman said Khazanah had the option to extend the closing date for its partial offer from July 8 until 10 days after July 30 in order to give shareholders a chance to assess their options. The SIC said under Singapore rules, a party has 50 days to decide whether to make a counterbid from the date an offer document by a rival party is despatched to shareholders.

Integrated Healthcare, the Khazanah unit, sent out its offer document on June 10. COUNTERBID EXPECTED “Everyone on the street is expecting Fortis will counterbid, but they have not come out with details,” said an analyst who asked not to be named because of his firm’s media policy.

Counter offer:

“This statement will put more pressure on Fortis.” “The market expects the counteroffer will be 10-15 per cent above Khazanah’s offer price, which will put the price around S$4-S$4.20,” the analyst said. Fortis is controlled by billionaire brothers Malvinder and Shivinder Singh, who sold their controlling stake in Indian drugmaker Ranbaxy Laboratories to Japan’s Daiichi Sankyo two years ago. The Singhs have a fortune estimated by Forbes at $3 billion, while Khazanah has about $28 billion in assets.

HDFC Sec View:

“It will be difficult for Fortis to sustain if the situation were to lead to a price war,” said Ranjit Kapadia, an analyst with Mumbai-based HDFC Securities.

Apollo Hospitals has announced plans to split stock. This move has sent stock up 5%

Its trading at Rs.742 now . It has been lagging Fotis Health care in terms of Market cap. Profit wise Apollo is far ahead of Fortis. Fortis has a strong presence in North India where as Apollo has a near monopoly in Chennai , Hyderabad.

Apollo has been building the network slow and steady where as fortis is exapnding in an urgent manner and trying to buy all hospitals in its way.

Lets see whose strategy clicks after a few years. Market has given Fortis a slight advantage , but Apollo surely has a lead in all other fronts.

Apollo Pharmacy may be divested anytime.

SRL RANBAXY  | Super Religare Labs ( laboratories ) is planning to launch an IPO ( Initial Public Offering ) this fiscal .

SRL Ranbaxy is owned by Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh, the former promoters of Ranbaxy.

SRL Ranbaxy runs diagnostic labs all over the country. The company plans to raise Rs. 200 Crores through IPO.

Company is valued at Rs.1000 Crores. IPO Date and Price is yet to be announced.

Other diagnostic chains are Dr Lal Pathlabs, Metropolis and Piramal Diagnostics. US major Quest Diagnostics has also started operations in the country. The industry is attracting investment from PE firms. Sequoia Capital and ICICI Ventutre have invested in Dr Lal Pathlabs and Metropolis, respectively.

SRL Ranbaxy has over 40 laboratories and 1,000 collection centres across 450 towns and cities.

Actress Kelly Preston has said her 16-year old son with husband John Travolta became very sick when he was 2 and was diagnosed with Kawasaki disease, an illness that affects the blood vessels in young children.The boy, Jett Travolta, died Friday after suffering a seizure at the family’s vacation home in the Bahamas, though it wasn’t immediately clear whether the death was related to his illness. The boy was found in a bathtub, where he reportedly fell and hit his head.In a 2003 interview on the Montel Williams show, Preston talked about her son’s struggle with Kawasaki disease. “It causes swelling in the organs, so your heart can swell, different important organs can swell,” she said. “We thought at one point we were going to lose him.”Dr. Scott Alenick, a pediatric cardiologist in New Jersey, told FOXNews.com in an interview last year that Kawasaki disease is a condition that affects children, especially boys under the age of 5, and causes aneurysms and blockages in the blood vessels.”We usually see it in the winter, but it can occur year-round,” Alenick, who has treated hundreds of cases of Kawasaki disease, said. “It is very unusual to die from Kawasaki disease.”According to the American Heart Association, more than 4,000 cases of the disease are diagnosed annually in the United States. It occurs more often in boys of Japanese and Korean descent, but has been identified in children of all ethnicities and races, Alenick said.While the condition is not preventable, it is treatable with most children recovering from the disease. In fact, less than 1 percent of Kawasaki cases are fatal.The danger of Kawasaki syndrome is that it can cause large aneurysms in the blood vessels that feed blood to the heart, said Alenick.“Kawasaki doesn’t come in degrees of severity, but it varies in that it may cause no aneurysms, small aneurysms, moderate aneurysms or giant aneurysms,” he said. “Giant aneurysms are more common in babies. But it’s the aneurysms that form in the vessels and the arteries that feed the heart that have the potential to cause a fatal heart attack.”The disease was first identified in Japan in 1967 by Dr. Tomisaku Kawasaki, and the cause of the illness is still unknown, Alenick said. There also is no blood test to identify the illness. Instead, patients are given a clinical diagnosis based on whether they display at least five of these six symptoms: a high fever that lasts for more than five days, red lips and tongue, swelling of the hands and feet, bloodshot eyes, rash and swollen glands.Once a diagnosis is made, patients are given high doses of aspirin to control the inflammation and put on an IV drip consisting of gamma globulin. Once the initial inflammation is brought under control, most children are kept on a low dose of aspirin to prevent clots and aneurysms from forming in the veins, Alenick said.Jett Travolta was pronounced dead at Rand Memorial Hospital, police said, and an autopsy is being scheduled.The family had arrived in the Bahamas on Dec. 30, according to police.Travolta and Preston also have an 8-year-old daughter, Ella.

Apollo Pharma : Apollo into drug manufacturingApollo Hospitals, India’s largest hospital chain, is looking to foray into drug manufacturing and early-stage clinical trials, according to company chairman Prathap Reddy. A three-member team formed by the company is already scouting for acquisition targets in the drug manufacturing space at a time when bearish markets and a global slowdown have brought down valuations across industries. “The cost of companies has now come down. But, our team has not recommended any company so far,” said Mr Reddy. The Hyderabad-based hospital chain is also setting up a wholly-owned subsidiary to enter the clinical trials space in tie-up with foreign entities. It is close to signing joint venture agreements with two US companies to conduct phase-I and phase-II clinical trials in oncology and cardiology segments. Phase-I trials are the first test of a molecule on humans (normally a small group of 20-80 healthy volunteers), while phase-II trials are done on larger groups of up to 300 people to assess how well the drug works and to reassess its safety. “We expect to close the JVs in the next 90 days,” Mr Reddy said. The hospital currently conducts phase-III trials of several companies. Phase-III studies are random controlled multi-centre studies carried out in usually 300-3,000 people to examine its exact efficacy.  Industry watchers said that Apollo can leverage its hospitals to conduct clinical trials, but felt it may be difficult for the company to make an impact in the highly competitive drug manufacturing space. “The company has access to patient and can leverage its hospital chains to do clinical research. But it may be too late for Apollo to manufacture generic drugs,” said Ranjit Kapadia, head of pharma research at brokerage firm Prabhudas Liladhar. “It will have to compete with established brands in the fiercely competitive market. Its advantages are the pharmacy network and a large pool of doctors to prescribe its drugs,” Mr Kapadia added. In fact, according to a senior company executive who requested anonymity, Apollo is looking at getting a wide range of drugs manufactured by third parties, to be sold through its drug retail chain Apollo Pharmacy as its own brands. “The company has shortlisted four to five companies, the executive said, but did not clarify whether they were acquisition targets or likely contract manufacturers. The plans are expected to be finalised in the next one month, the executive added. Apollo Pharmacy gets low-value medicines made through third parties and sell them under its two private labels, Apollo and Doctors’ Choice. Apollo Pharmacy has 750 stores across the country and plans to add 250 more by February 2009. There are an estimated five-six lakh drug retailers selling medicines worth Rs 33,000 crore in the domestic retail market.

Wockhardt Hospitals IPO : Wockhardt Hospitals IPO soon

Wockhardt Hospitals Ltd, which has already filed the draft red herring prospectus with the market regulator SEBI, is expecting to float the Initial Public Offer (IPO) by the end of the current financial year. The company was also in the process of building a 350-bed super speciality hospital in Kolkata which would be ready in the next 12 months, Wockhardt group Chairman Habil Khorakiwala told reporters here on Friday.

The company expects to earn revenues of $600 million this fiscal, he said. About 50 per cent of the company’s revenue was coming from overseas operations, he added

After Malar, Fortis eyes Chennai’s Lifeline

Fortis has set its sight on the 450-bed Lifeline Hospital chain in Chennai. The Delhi-based healthcare major is believed to have made an offer to acquire the hospital chain promoted by Dr JS Rajkumar.

The Lifeline Hospital chain now has 450 beds and 30-plus corporate clinics. It has 1,000 employees on its rolls. With a turnover of less than Rs 20 crore in March 2007, Lifeline’s enterprise value is pegged between Rs 200 and Rs 300 crore. It is eyeing a turnover of more than Rs 40 crore this year.

With about 2.5 lakh sq ft space available across its four hospitals in the city, the hospital chain, which started as a 20-bed venture with 25-people in 1997, has been rapidly pursuing expansion plans.

It has a major 225-bed facility at Perungudi in the city’s IT corridor. Recently, it entered into a 10-year lease agreement with the Bharathirajaa Speciality Hospital and Research Centre, located at T Nagar, a major commercial hub. This pact will scale up the bed strength of Lifeline by 40 more.

Chennai headquartered Apollo Hospitals Enterprise will raise Rs 426.40 crore through private placement with Apax Mauritius FDI One.

Apollo Hospitals informed the BSE that its board approved the allotment of 7.04 million equity shares with a face value Rs 10 each to Apax at Rs 605.07 per share.

Apollo Hospitals to set up 3 hospitals in Maharashtra

India`s largest hospital chain, Apollo Hospitals, is planning to set up 3 hospitals in Maharashtra, reports Economic Times.
The hospital chain, plans to set up a 400-bed multi-specialty hospital in Navi Mumbai and two hospitals, one each in Nasik and Thane, through a 50:50 joint venture with the Yash Birla Group.

The hospital major is having 3.5-acre plot in Navi Mumbai and will invest Rs 2.5 billion to set up a multi-specialty hospital on it.

Shares of the company declined Rs 10.4, or 2.16% to trade at Rs 470.00. The total volume of shares traded was 9,749 at the BSE.(1.01 p.m. ,Friday ).