The Hindu Business Line : Hind Latex teams up with US firm Acumen Fund

Thiruvananthapuram, March 18 Hindustan Latex Ltd (HLL), a mini ‘Ratna’ under the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and leading manufacturer of condoms and other healthcare products, has formed a joint venture with Acumen Fund of the US for providing healthcare to low-income groups in India.

The joint venture, LifeSpring Hospitals (Private) Ltd, will have a 50:50 equity partnership between the two entities with an authorised capital of Rs 20 crore.

Acumen will invest an initial equity of Rs 7.83 crore, which will support LifeSpring’s plan to open five hospitals in 2008 and 30 across the country by the end of 2010, according to Mr M. Ayyapan, Chairman and Managing Director, HLL.

He said here on Tuesday that the hospitals, with 20-25 beds, would focus on providing maternal and child healthcare services to low-income clients in the country. Acumen Fund is a non-profit philanthropy organisation that invests in social enterprises addressing poverty in South Asia and Africa.

The LifeSpring hospitals will charge only 30-50 per cent of the prevailing market rates for a normal delivery. This will work out to Rs 1,499 compared to an average market rate of Rs 5,450. The new hospitals will come up in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra, and the company is planning to have 140 franchised hospitals between 2010 and 2012.

Mr Ayyapan said that HLL had drawn up diversification programmes and it had acquired 500 acres at Chinglepet near Chennai where a vaccine plant would be set up in the first phase. This is estimated to cost Rs 150 crore.

The company is expecting a turnover of Rs 348 crore in the current year, which will mark a 40 per cent growth over the Rs 243-crore recorded in 2006-07. It has targeted to cross the Rs 1,000-crore mark in 2011.