Mumbai: Global private equity fund Permira may emerge as the frontrunner to acquire a stake worth $150-200 million in Bengaluru-based maternal and child healthcare chain Cloudnine Hospitals, two people familiar with the matter said.
“Permira seems to be edging ahead of other players such as TPG, which were in the last lap of discussions. They have moved faster with their due diligence and may likely close in on the deal,” one person said.
“The deal will be secondary in nature, with only existing investor True North looking to sell its over decade-old stake in the company,” the second person said, adding that the round has been downsized after the company did not proceed with an acquisition in West Asia.
Permira and TPG declined to comment. Cloudnine and True North did not respond to Mint’s requests for comment till the time of publishing.
Earlier this year, British private equity firm Permira marked its first official direct investment in India by acquiring a 40% stake in the real estate and business services platform SILA for $100 million, Mint reported in April.
Led by Siddharth Narayan, who serves as the India head of the fund, the potential deal in Cloudnine would make it one of the early investments for the firm while expanding its footprint in the country.
In June, Mint first reported that Cloudnine was looking to raise $250-300 million in a fresh funding round, the bulk of which was expected to go towards funding an acquisition in West Asia. Allegro Capital had advised the company on the deal.
This fresh development comes months after Kids Clinic India Pvt Ltd, which operates Cloudnine Hospitals, agreed to acquire the maternity, childcare and fertility businesses of Apollo Health & Lifestyle in a cash-and-stock transaction valued at about $160 million earlier this year.
PE funds
The bulk of Cloudnine’s stake is held by private equity funds – True North (first invested in 2015), Temasek (2024) and TPG NewQuest (2021), while Apollo holds a 9.9% stake worth ₹785 crore post its transaction in May, valuing the overall asset at about ₹7,930 crore ($825 million). The promoters own a small shareholding in the company.
Founded in 2006 by R Kishore Kumar, Rohit M.A., M. Ramachandra and Vidya Kumar, Cloudnine is a chain of single-speciality hospitals catering to mother and baby care, including fertility, maternity care, gynaecology, paediatrics, neonatology, baby care and stem cell banking.
The company has about 40 centres across north and south India, spanning 13 cities, including Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Gurugram, Ludhiana and Chandigarh.
It plans to set up units across various metros and tier-I cities, which is expected to reduce the company’s operational dependence in one specific area, credit rating company Icra said.
The company’s operating revenue rose to ₹1,485.6 crore in FY25 from ₹1,187.7 crore in the previous year, while its loss widened to ₹46.4 crore from ₹27.9 crore, according to Icra’s report from last year. The company is expected to post healthy revenue growth over the near term, driven by a steady ramp-up at existing centres and improving revenue share from the new centres, it added.
Single-speciality segment
Cloudnine competes with Motherhood Hospitals, Indira IVF, Milann Fertility & Maternity, Rainbow Children’s Hospital and other large general hospital chains Manipal Health Enterprises and Max Healthcare, which operate expansive mother-and-child wings.
India’s healthcare provider market is expected to grow by over 10% into a $95 billion market by 2030. The single-speciality segment is projected to grow from $4.4 billion in 2025 to about $12.3 billion in the same period, Bessemer Venture Partners said in a report this year.
There is an industry-wide shift toward single speciality in India, reflecting a structural re-orientation of healthcare delivery. The traditional multi-speciality, jack-of-all-trades hospital model is giving way to focused, standardized, and patient-centric systems, the company noted.
Growth in this new class of specialty-native providers is expected to be driven by an aging population, rising insurance penetration, spend and health awareness and sustained investor interest.