A Specialty Touch

With the backing of private equity major TPG, Vishal Bali is scripting a new chapter in his three decade journey in India’s health care industry

- Anshul Dhamija

Vishal Bali relinquished his duties as Group CEO of Fortis Healthcare in March 2014 after heading the company for four years. It also led to a new chapter in his 23-year stint in the Indian health care industry. The 52-year-old had started out as a management trainee at Wockhardt Hospitals in 1991 and had worked his way up to the chief executive’s post. In 2009, Fortis Healthcare acquired Wockhardt Hospitals for `900 crore and thus began Bali’s association with the chain of hospitals which had operations across Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

“In health care delivery, particularly in India, you need a combination of soft and hard skills. You are dealing with clinicians, a unique group of people who have to be handled very well…many operating executives don’t have the expertise to deal with them day in and day out,” says Ankur Thadani, vice president, TPG Growth, an investment unit of private equity (PE) major TPG.

The US-based PE firm has $100 billion in assets under management globally, of which $15 billion has been invested in health care. “Vishal, though, has great respect among doctors and has a strong strategic focus in terms of what he wants to build,” adds Thadani. It didn’t come as a surprise then that he sought Bali’s help when he decided to invest big bucks in the country’s health care delivery space.

In India, TPG has invested about half a million dollars in the health care space through its two investment arms, TPG Growth and TPG Capital. The latter holds a minority stake in Bengaluru-based Manipal Hospitals. Last April, British buyout fund Apax Partners bought TPG Growth-owned Healthium Medtech, a leading Indian medical devices company, for about $300 million. “Health care is a strategic sector for us,” says Thadani.