By AltG Research On Behalf Of Poornima Vardhan And Taponeel Mukherjee
Another day, another expensive deal for Private Equity in India. In the latest news, Baring PE Asia, EQT, Blackstone, Bain Capital, Advent International, and TPG Capital have submitted bids to acquire a 60% stake in Indira IVF, India's leading fertility clinic chain, in a deal that could value the company at around $1.2 billion.
The 3 Key Takeaways:
1. High Industry Growth with Higher Competition: Industry reports value the TAM (total addressable market) for IVF industry at ~$ 800 million, growing at a healthy CAGR of 16.5% with high fragmentation. While this offers positive momentum for IVF companies, AltG's APEXX formula, after analysing 100's of IVF companies, concludes that the level of competition by hyper-local IVF chains is very high. While branding is key to getting a premium and maintaining margins, there is limited upside for scale and generating returns.
2. Purchase Price Matters: Currently, paying high valuations is trending in the PE world in India. And this deal shows the same. With a reported revenue of INR 954 Crores and an EBITDA of INR 322 Crores, Indira IVF is valued at 10x revenue and 30x EBITDA. With such a high valuation, the big question to PE firms is - are they really thinking about returns?
3. Scale via Roll-ups: This industry has a lot of structural similarities with The Diagnostics Industry - This is a classic levered real-estate play, where current asset utilisation will be key to driving margins. Similar to the diagnostics industry, the key to driving growth will be to create asset-light partnerships, financial structuring, improving asset utilisation and rolling up smaller industry players looking at consolidation to achieve growth and synergies.
In conclusion, the key to success of 1.2 Billion Dollar Indira IVF Deal lies in focusing on Margin creating expansion. The focus must be on growth, but only growth that can deliver benchmark returns on investments.