The Hindu Business Line : Health is wealth

SATISH Sanan is in the news again - with his company Integreo acquiring, this time, the healthcare processing-related arm of Siemens, and being close to acquiring yet another company in the medical imaging sector.

Sanan, Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Integreo, says the effort is aimed at lacing together missing elements to become an end-to-end healthcare business process outsourcing (BPO) solutions provider.

During his recent visit to India, Sanan, who manages companies spread across four locations in the US and oversees operations in Indian offshoring centres, talked of his passion - to make his company a major healthcare BPO player and how he is piecing together expertise across domains, and consolidating operations organically.

Earlier, the company changed its brand identity from STI Knowledge to Integreo. Sanan is now looking at offshoring 70 per cent of the company operations to India. He is also planning the company's maiden public float, within the next year or two, from India.

During the eighties, Sanan came into the limelight growing two companies — SHL Systemhouse and IMR Global. Founded in 1988, IMR Global was successful as a public company, with a market capitalisation of $1.3 billion, with over 3,000 employees. This was sold to CGI, Canada, in 2001, where he became Vice-Chairman. As a part of that company, he was engaged with large deals.

Sanan was awarded the Ernst & Young Florida Entrepreneur of the year award in 1998 and National Entrepreneur of the year award in 1999.

All of company operations have been brought under Integreo, which recently raised about $40 million in funding from an Investor group led by Sanan himself, and including Mellon Ventures, Westbridge Capital and BV-Cornerstone, LP. This funding is aimed at fuelling the company's expansion and acquisition plans. Last year, the company raised $39.5 million.

The Indian operations were carved out of Symphony Data, which was acquired by the company in February 2005. Headed by Sandeep Madan, its Hyderabad operations currently host about 600 associates working in the healthcare business. The company projects revenues of about $100 million this year.

The company is in the process of creating its own facility with an investment of $5 million and plans investment of about $10 million more in India to further consolidate operations and grow offshoring operations. Earlier, it had acquired STI Knowledge Inc, in the US, which is a pure-play business process outsourcing company. Later, it went on to acquire HPS Paradigm, a third party outsourcing company that provides solutions for hospitals.

"I have visited and evaluated about 66 companies during the last two years for acquisition. This led us to the recent acquisition of the revenue lifecycle management division of the $53-billion Siemens conglomerate. This was against stiff competition from the likes of Warburg Pincus and ICICI" he says.

Given the company's focus on the healthcare sector, Sanan says, "we have most of the elements that help us address the market. One area that we had to address was medical imaging and this we expect to bridge through another acquisition."

The US healthcare sector is extremely fragmented but is estimated to be about $1.7 trillion, which is a little over two times the Indian GDP (gross domestic product). There are only two types of players in the healthcare sector, payers and providers.

Of this, 53 per cent of the total spend is accounted for by the US Federal Government.

But interestingly, there is no player that provides end-to-end services. This offers huge scope for growth if one has the capability to address this market, he believes.

Therefore, the effort is towards providing medical management services through a blended-shore business, where India will be strategic. This will complement four centres in the US that are business-specific. These solutions will cover management of demand, patients, disease and predictive management.

"We are in no great hurry to come up with an initial public offering in India. It will all depend on market conditions.

One advantage we now have, which publicly-listed companies do not, is that there is no pressure from investors.

In listed companies, one could get bogged down in issues relating to delivering numbers rather than focus on business," he says.

To start from scratch and grow a company will take a long time and also make it difficult to compete. Sanan says "the best way is to grow the business through strategic acquisitions, which not only bring business and customers on board but also good resources.

Therefore, Integreo continues to scout for acquisitions, and the next one is round the corner," he says.

A passion for horses

Apart from managing companies in the US and overseeing operations in India, Sanan is passionate about horse breeding and racing.

Love of horses often is something passed down the family, in Sanan's case from his great-grandfather.

He has named his stable Padua in honour of his mother-in-law, Julia. In 1997, he and his wife Anne bought the first six Padua horses at the Keeneland July Summer Yearling Sale. The dream to win races worldwide continued with purchases of yearlings and racing fillies from around the world. In early 1998, the Sanans bought their farm in Ocala, Florida and built Padua Stables. They continue to expand operations.

vrishi@thehindu.co.in

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