It’s not that neighbourhood clinics are new arrivals — they have been around for years as single doctor practices in eye and dental care and maternity nursing homes. But now, given their limited ability to scale up, many are joining hands with the upcoming corporate chains. “The writing is on the wall for doctors,” says Matrix’s Bajaj. “A single doctor practice cannot expand beyond a point, so it only makes sense when doctors join these corporate chains.”
That’s already happening in eye care. Single specialty hospital brands such as Vasan Healthcare, Maxivision, Centre for Sight and Eye-Q are scaling up their operations across the country as PE/VC investors place heavy bets on these chains. For instance, Centre for Sight plans to take its 41 centres up to 75 by 2017; and Maxivision wants to expand from 17 to 25 centres in the next two years. And since Vasan’s first clinic opened in Trichy in 2001, the brand has scaled up to an impressive 125 centres across 75 cities where 25,000 patients are treated every day. It branched into dental care in 2011 and has rapidly grown to 20 centres.
Money has not been a problem — PE players like Sequoia Capital and Westbridge Advisors and sovereign funds like GIC Singapore, which have pumped $150 million into the company over the past three years, have nicely supported Vasan. AM Arun, chairman of Vasan Healthcare, expects to have 250 eye care and 100 dental centres in the next three years — he has also fixed ambitious revenue targets of Rs 850-900 crore in FY13 as against Rs 550 crore in FY12. “Given the huge demand-supply gap in healthcare, there is room for at least another 10 players like us to come into the market today,” Arun says.
The successes in the eye care sector are inspiring players such as Alliance Dental Care, Narayana Hrudayalaya Dental Clinic and Axiss Dental, who want to replicate those achievements in the dental care space. Naryana Hrudayalaya Dental Clinic, which has around 35 clinics predominantly in Bengaluru and Kolkata, plans to invest Rs 150 crore to expand to 200 clinics in the next three years, while White Dental Care is looking to set up 100 clinics in the next 18-24 months.
White is owned by Alliance Dental Care, a 70:30 joint venture between Apollo Hospitals and Trivitron Healthcare. It is currently in talks with investors to raise almost Rs 60 crore via debt and equity to fund its expansion plans and aims to make the leap from the projected Rs 35-40 crore in FY13 to Rs 100 crore once the expansion comes to a close.
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