Online News : VCCIRCLE :Thyrocare On Road To Raise PE Money

The Mumbai-based diagnostic laboratory is in talks with private equity players to raise up to Rs 240 crore.

Thyrocare Technologies Ltd, a Mumbai-based diagnostic laboratory, is in talks with private equity players to raise up to Rs 240 crore. The company will use the funds to add hi-tech services such as scanning and imaging to its portfolio.

A Velumani, the promoter who holds 95% in Thyrocare, is willing to trade 40% of his stake for a sum of Rs 240 crore. That means he is seeking a valuation of Rs 600 crore for Thyrocare, which runs as a hub-and-spoke model with a single laboratory in Mumbai fed by 600 specimen collection centres.

"I will dilute up to 40% of Thyrocare stake to private equity players for around Rs 240 crore," Dr A Velumani, CEO, Thyrocare Technologies told VCCircle. Thyrocare posted a turnover of Rs 52 crore in 2008-09 with EBIDTA of Rs 30 crore and net profit of Rs 20 crore. The company is planning to offer imaging services in over 20 cities and has earmarked an investment of Rs 10 crore in each city.

The valuation expectation appears to be a hurdle in Thyrocare's PE-raising initiative. Three valuation experts, VCCircle spoke to, said, "it depends on a case-to-case basis. Typically, a valuation between 5 and 8 times of EBIDTA is justified."

 

 

Read complete story : http://www.vccircle.com/500/news/thyrocare-on-road-to-raise-pe-money

Blog News: Diagnsotics : Quality :Organized labs plead govt to expedite passing of Clinical Establishment Bill

The big players in the diagnostics sector are eagerly waiting for the enactment of Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Bill 2007, which is likely to be introduced in Parliament during the current monsoon session, as it will put an end to the unhealthy competition in the marker from the small players.

Lack of regulation in the diagnostics service sector is badly affecting the reputation of the industry and the lives of patients resulting in serious issues with the healthcare scenario in the country. While the major players are pursuing efforts to accredit their labs with the international quality standards, a large number of individual labs in the unorganised sector do not have even a single qualified lab technician to test the samples, informed sources said.

Poor quality norms and undercutting of charges by small pathology labs make the sector a no-fair play field for the laboratory services companies, comments Girish Mehta, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Piramal Diagnostics.

 

Read complete story : http://valueaddedblog.wordpress.com/2009/06/22/organized-labs-plead-govt-to-expedite-passing-of-clinical-establishment-bill/

Online Diagnostics news : Express HealthCare : High Court Dismisses PIL Against Span Diagnostics: Surat, Gujarat, India

Span has supplied approximately 30 millions tests through various Government programmes

 

The Delhi High Court has recently dismissed a petition that alleged discrepancies in the procurement of test kits for HIV detection from Surat-based Span Diagnostics Limited. The PIL, filed by NGO, ADHIKAR in August 2007 against UOI and five others including Span Diagnostics Ltd had alleged that some of the kits supplied to National Aids Control Organisation (NACO) under award IFB-39 dated October 27, 2006 were faulty and unreliable.

The division bench consisting of Chief Justice AP Shah and Honourable Justice Manmohan J, in their order dated August 26, 2009, dismissed a petition stating, "Nothing survives in the petition; the allegation of a financial scam is not substantiated."

Taking cognizance of the arguments, the High Court order referred to the malicious intent of a disgruntled competitor who had unsuccessfully bid for a tender floated by NACO for the supply of test kits for HIV detection. A section of the media had then reported an alleged "financial scam in the procurement of test kits".

Read full article : http://www.expresshealthcaremgmt.com/200912/market07.shtml

 

 

 

 

Online News : Express Healthcare : Nellore, AP, India : Sneha Diagnsotics opens new state-of-art diagnostics lab in Nellore,AP,India

The lab offers more than 1,500 tests in bio-chemistry, hematology, serology, pathology, micro-biology and 100 tests in radiology

 

Sneha Diagnostics recently inaugurated its seventh state-of-the-art pathological and radiological lab in Nellore district of AP.

The lab housed at 4,300 square feet, is built at a cost of Rs 70 lakh. The lab offers more than 1,500 tests in bio-chemistry, haematology, serology, pathology and micro-biology and 100 tests in radiology. It would also offer super speciality consultations in orthopaedics, general medicine and gynaecology. The chief guest for lab inauguration was Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy, MP, Nellore and for radiology department inauguration was Anam Vivekananda Reddy, MLA, Nellore.

Said, KK Mohan Raju, Chairman, Sneha Diagnostics, "The centre brings for the first time to the people of Nellore district and it's surroundings (having a population of around 40 lakh) world class quality diagnostic test services under one-roof. This centre has advanced clinical referral lab, pathology and radiology services, super speciality doctor consultation services and quality in-house pharmacy to give a one-stop experience to the patients.

This centre has fully automated advanced machinery run by well qualified man-power."

This centre will be able to provide same day reporting for many specialised tests at competitive prices that used to be done at Chennai, Hyderabad or Mumbai. There's also provision to setup MRI/ CT-Scan/Digital X-Ray in the near future.

"With this new centre, Sneha Diagnostics is in a clear leadership position in the state of AP and able to reach the deepest corners of the state of AP by bringing top quality diagnostic services by reaching one third of the state population. We're very confident and very optimistic to become a dominating force in the Indian diagnostic services market by being able to keep our expansion momentum active, in spite of the severe financial crisis in the market," he added.

Link: http://www.expresshealthcaremgmt.com/200910/market09.shtml