The Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd is ready for a major acquisition in UK. The Times of India has reported that Apollo has showed keen interest to take the British unit of Swedish healthcare company Capio.

Capio owns a chain of 21 hospitals and nine treatment centers in the UK. It is the largest independent sector provider to the NHS in England.

Earlier, the Sunday Telegraph had reported that Capio, which is owned by private equity groups, Apax and Nordic Capital, were thinking to the sale the Capio’s British unit. The report had said further that Apollo was looking at other hospitals also such as The Priory Group in Britain.

PC Reddy, chairman of Apollo Hospitals has confirmed the report by saying that his company is looking for international acquisitions. Apollo is ready to go global. Apollo has its chain in Nigeria, Kuwait and Bahamas.

He said further that as far as Capio is concerned, nothing has been finalized till yet. The sellers have not called for bids and if they call for bids we will participate in it.

The Apollo hospital chains need some decent financial strength for international acquisitions. For this, Apollo is planning to build a team with private equity players who will invest in the acquisition and we will manage the hospitals with our expert team.

He confirmed later that many big private equity investors are in touch with Apollo but nothing has finalized yet.

According to the reports, the take over could cost at least $1 to $1.2 billion to Apollo. But Reddy said that the market cost is not worthwhile.

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