Neuberg Diagnostics, founded last year by health care entrepreneur Dr. G.S.K. Velu, is scouting for acquisitions in India and Africa.
The company, which is an alliance of laboratories such as Anand Diagnostic Laboratory, Supratech Micropath, Ehrlich Lab, Global Labs and Minerva Labs, having bases in Karnataka, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, South Africa and Dubai, is looking at acquiring diagnostic companies in Maharashtra and Delhi. Besides, it has decided to focus on sub-Saharan Africa.
‘Third attempt’
“After Premier Diagnostics and Metropolis, this is the third time I am attempting diagnostics. This time, I have reasonable amount of money and this is why I am doing something different and big. At Neuberg, my focus is on precision diagnostics, which is the new generation technique currently gaining popularity,” Dr. Velu, the chairman of Neuberg Diagnostics, said in an interview.
Last year, Dr. Velu had invested more than ₹400 crore to pick up majority stake in the five partner labs.
“This year, we hope to add some more partners [acquisitions] in Maharashtra and Delhi. Then, we are also going to grow in sub- Saharan Africa such as Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Mozambique, where we are looking for acquisitions. This year, our revenue will be more than ₹600 crore from ₹400 crore last year,” he added.
He said he was readying his organisation to work on new generation techniques and undertake specialized tests as well as to achieve scale. “Africa offers a lot of potential to scale up and all governments are talking about Public Private Partnerships. Minus South Africa, the whole of Africa does not have any standardised diagnostics care so going forward our focus will be in Africa even though India now constitutes 60% of the business,” Dr. Velu said.
“We will go through acquisitions and IFHA, a private equity fund is partnering with me for African growth. We have to make some big investment in Africa,” he said. He said the business was already making profits and all the money will be channelised for acquisitions and if necessary he would pump in more of his own money.
