PE Fund Investments
KKR to buy out Apax Partners’ 99.8% stake in Healthium for Rs.7,000-Cr
KKR is to acquire Bengaluru-based Healthium Medtech (formerly Sutures India) from private equity fund and current owner Apax Partners for an enterprise value of INR 7,000 crore (USD 840 million).This concludes a race with a consortium of Mankind Pharma and ChrysCapital, the only other contender, which offered a price of INR 6,500 crore (USD 780 million). Novo Holdings, the controlling shareholder in Danish drug major Novo Nordisk, had pulled out of the race as did EQT.Healthium is the fourth largest surgical suture manufacturer in the world with a market share of about 18% in India. The Healthium Group has five key product areas: advanced surgery, arthroscopy, urology, wound care and consumables. Healthium products are claimed to have covered over 40,000 surgeons across 18,000 hospitals. In FY24, the company posted INR 820 crore in revenue and INR 256 crore EBITDA.Apax owns 99.8% of the company with the rest 0.2% owned by Anish Bafna, the CEO & MD of Healthium Medtech. Bafna will continue to run the company under KKR’s controlling ownership.Over the years, PE investors including InvAscent-led India Life Sciences, CX Partners and TPG Growth have backed the company. TPG Growth took a 73% controlling stake. In 2018, Apax Partners bought out TPG Growth, CX Partners, and founding shareholders, for about INR 1,950 crore (USD 300 million).Sutures India was originally set up in 1992 by LG Chandrasekhar and S Subramanium, former executives with Smith & Nephew, and Johnson & Johnson.
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