Pharmeasy buys 66.1% of Thyrocare, becomes first listed company acquired by Indian unicorn

API Holdings Ltd (API), the parent company of digital healthcare brand Pharmeasy, is set to acquire automated accredited diagnostic laboratory Thyrocare Technologies, making the first such deal of a listed entity by an Indian unicorn.

API Holdings has signed definitive documents to acquire 66.1 per cent stake in Thyrocare Technologies Ltd (Thyrocare) from Dr A. Velumani and affiliates at a price of Rs 1,300 per share aggregating to Rs 4,546 crore.

The transaction is subject to regulatory and other applicable customary approvals. Docon Technologies Pvt Ltd, a 100 per cent subsidiary of API, will be the acquirer and shall make an open offer for an additional 26 per cent stake.

Velumani will be separately acquiring a minority non-controlling stake, of less than 5 per cent, in API as part of a series of equity investments by existing and new investors of API.

PharmEasy is an online pharmacy and diagnostics brand, RetailIO - India's largest B2B pharma marketplace & seller, and DocOn - a leading consultation and EMR platform.

The company has a base of over 12 million consumers, network of over 6,000 digital consultation clinics, and over 90,000 partner retailers across the country. It currently serves over 1 million patients for their pharmacy & diagnostics needs, conducts over 300,000 consultations, and issues over 1 million digital prescriptions on a monthly basis.

Thyrocare is a diagnostics solution provider by volume with over 110 million tests performed annually. It is the largest B2B player in the diagnostics space and has a network of over 3,330 collection centres across in over 2,000 towns in India. Thyrocare operates a multi-lab model with one mega central processing lab, two zonal processing labs and 13 regional processing labs across the country.

India's largest digital health platform

The partnership between PharmEasy and Thyrocare is expected to draw synergies of both, India's largest digital health platform and one of the largest, cost-effective diagnostics solution providers (by volume), and will accelerate the delivery of high-quality diagnostic and OPD services across the full continuum of patient care to nearly 800 million Indians, the company said in a statement.

On the addition of Thyrocare into its portfolio, API Holdings CEO Siddharth Shah said: "It is our aim to deliver all outpatient healthcare products & services to every Indian within 24 hours." This partnership is expected to create tremendous opportunities for the entire ecosystem of consumers, doctors and suppliers in the Indian healthcare sector.