Super Religare Labs buys Piramal Diagnostic in Rs600 crore deal
14 Jul 2010
Super Religare Laboratories Ltd (SRL), the diagnostic chain promoted by Malvinder and Shivinder Singh, yesterday signed a definitive agreement to acquire Piramal Diagnostic Services Pvt Ltd, a unit of Piramal Healthcare Ltd. The deal was worth around Rs600 crore, according to reports.
Piramal Diagnostics has 124 diagnostic centres in 85 cities with over 400 sample collection centres, according to information on its website. The diagnostic arm of Piramal Healthcare clocked annual revenue of around Rs200 crore in 2009-2010.
SRL currently has two clinical reference labs, 50 satellite labs and more than 1000 collection centres spread across 450 cities in India and overseas. Piramal Healthcare recently sold its domestic formulation business to US-based Abbott Laboratories for $3.7 billion.
Piramal Healthcare would now concentrate on its contract research and manufacturing services, critical care and over-the-counter drugs businesses which fetches it revenues of around Rs1700 crore. ''Our presence extends to national and international network of laboratories, including reference Laboratories, located in Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkatta and Dubai. We have added 10 laboratories in 2007-08, which is indicative of SRL's ambitious plans.
This momentum will be sustained in 2008-09,'' an earlier statement of SRL had said.
Brothers Malvinder and Shivinder Singh, promoters of SRL, are also separately locked in a multi-billion dollar bidding battle with Malaysian sovereign fund Khazanah for Singapore's Parkway Hospitals.
Piramal Diagnostics has a wide presence in the west, east and south India and is seen as a strategic fit for Super Religare Laboratories which is largely dominant in north India and is expanding into west and south India. The Singh brothers are on an acquisition spree after selling their 35 per cent stake in pharmaceutical company Ranbaxy Laboratories for about Rs 10,000 crore in June 2008.
This would be the second key acquisition for Super Religare after it bought Dubai-based Mena Healthcare facility for $20 million in late 2008. Last year, hospital chain Fortis Healthcare, also promoted by the Singh brothers, bought 10 hospitals from rival Wockhardt for Rs900 crore.