Dr Batra’s to raise Rs 100 crore in PE investment

Homeopathic clinic chain, Dr Batra’s has planned to raise Rs 100 crore in private equity investment by the end of this year focusing on expansion of its new hair transplant business, B Perfect. The company would also allocate funds towards mergers and acquisitions.

“We are looking to finalise the investment of Rs 100 crore in next two months as we are in talks with two or three strategic private equity investors, both from India as well foreign,” said Dr Mukesh Batra, Chairman and Managing Director, Dr Batra’s Positive Health Clinic Pvt. Ltd.

The PE funding, said Dr Batra, would be used for, “Expanding 16 products in our portfolio including skin care and body products. Then we have started hair transplanting and weight loss business which needs an investment of around Rs 1.25 crore per clinic. Apart from that we are looking at mergers and acquisitions (M&As) within and outside India and we are also trying to acquire small chains clinics in Australia, Singapore and China.”

Talking about his new venture of hair transplant called B Perfect, Dr Batra said, “It is a new project which was started last year in 2011. Currently we only have 3 centres across India but we are looking to expand. As of now we are in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. However, we have just launched it in Chennai and we are opening another one in Hyderabad next month.”

The deal is still at a pre-mature stage and the company is looking to dilute five to 20 per cent of stake over a period of time, he added.

Currently the company has 96 clinics across the country and is planning to add more through franchising by end of this fiscal year. “We are already tied up with Franchise India who is helping us to expand to tier II and tier III cities. So, far we have received around 90 applications for franchising. We are looking to open 35 clinics through that model by April 2013,” he said.

The company has already tied up with Heath and Glow and supermarket giant SPAR having outlets in Bangalore and rest of the country. Also, it is in agreement with Big Bazaar for its product distribution in 711 stores of retail major across the country, beginning with 24 stores in Mumbai from October 1^st onwards.

The company today stands with a share of Rs 100 crore out of Rs 2,760 homeopathic market in India, which Dr Batra is planning to increase by more than two folds by 2015.