API Holdings Ltd, the holding company for Indian online pharmacy store PharmEasy, has agreed to acquire a stake of 66.1% in Thyrocare Technologies, a chain of diagnostic and preventive care laboratories, for Rs 45.46 billion ($61.25 million).

The stake is being acquired from Dr. A Velumani and affiliates at a price of INR 1,300 per share. It is being acquired by API Holdings’ fully-owned subsidiary Docon Technologies, which will make an open offer to acquire a further stake of 26%.

Dr. A Velumani will be acquiring separately a minority stake under 5% in API Holdings under a series of equity investments by existing and new investors of the PharmEasy owner.

Commenting on the deal, Dr A. Velumani – Chairman and MD of Thyrocare Technologies said: “I am excited about this relationship, unique of its kind in Indian Healthcare Industry. The unique reach and strength of Thyrocare in Diagnostics blended with young and dynamic team of PharmEasy will bring in better healthcare solutions for common man nationwide.”

Thyrocare Technologies is among the top diagnostics solutions provider in India with more than 110 million tests carried out by it annually. It has a network of more than 3,330 collection centres across India with locations in more than 2,000 cities and towns.

On the other hand, PharmEasy offers online shopping for over-the-counter medicines, healthcare products, and other daily essentials. It also offers diagnostic tests to its members.

RetailIO, an Indian B2B pharma marketplace and seller is also a part of the API Holdings family, while Docon Technologies is a consultation and electronic medical records (EMR) platform.

PharmEasy is claimed to have a base of over 12 million consumers, a network of over 6,000 digital consultation clinics, and 90,000 plus partner retailers across India.

The synergies of PharmEasy and Thyrocare Technologies is expected to reimagine and expedite the delivery of high-quality diagnostic and outpatient department (OPD) services across the full continuum of patient care to approximately 800 million people in India.

Siddharth Shah – CEO of API Holdings said: “We are delighted to be partnering Thyrocare. We will provide world class customer experience in diagnostics, rivalling our pharmacy experience by leveraging technology, and building on top of the massive scale & truly pan-India presence of Thyrocare.

“It is our aim to deliver all outpatient healthcare products & services to every Indian within 24 hours.”

The closing of the deal is contingent to receipt of regulatory and other relevant customary approvals.

  diagnostic tests, Docon Technologies, Dr. A Velumani, India, PharmEasy, RetailIO, Siddharth Shah, Thyrocare Technologies