Amar Ujala Buys Major Stakes of Rs 130 crore in Cygnus Medicare

As a part of its expansion plan in the healthcare segment, leading Hindi daily Amar Ujala acquired Rs 130 crore stakes in Cygnus Medicare, a chain of super-speciality hospitals.

The Amar Ujala-Cygnus Medicare deal includes the take over of 10 of Cygnus Medicare hospitals along with two of the buyer's hospitals in the overall portfolio.

The company has acquired a majority share in Cygnus Medicare with management control and funds will be raised through internal accruals for the acquisition.

The investment of Rs 130 crore shows a significant primary commitment which includes the merger of two Ujala Healthcare hospitals as well as the secondary investment which provides an exit to angel investors and a partial exit to existing institutional investors, Amar Ujala said.

The company plan to have a total of 20 hospitals in three years. The idea is to create more access points and make it more inclusive with the hub and spoke model.

Amar Ujala follows the asset-light business model. They take the hospitals on long term rent and sometimes on the revenue sharing model.

Cygnus Medicare currently has more than 1,000 beds across its 10 super speciality hospitals in Delhi and Haryana.

Now, they are also looking to provide inclusive primary and preventive healthcare access through innovative digital devices and solutions, he added.

The company is committed to creating healthcare facilities in tier II and tier III towns. To this, Amar Ujala Director Probal Ghosal said, “We felt the need of creating infrastructure and multiple access points with high-quality healthcare delivery systems and accordingly we ventured into this space to work for the underserved tier II and tier III people in northern India.”

Expressing the belief in this merger that plans to impact the tertiary healthcare in tier II and III towns, Cygnus Medicare promoter Dinesh Batra said: "The asset-light model being pursued, by both Amar Ujala and us, is highly scalable and replicable in the Indian context."