Investcorp invests $67m in Asia’s largest dental chain

India: Investcorp announced its investment of 5.45 billion Indian rupees (US$67 million) in India’s Global Dental Services Limited (GDS), said to be Asia’s largest dental chain.

This marks the Bahrain-based asset manager’s fourth healthcare investment in India and first in India’s dental industry. Also listed as an investor is Tybourne Capital, an Asia-based global growth investor.

The investment is expected to fund GDS’ expansion to 1,000 clinics in the next five years. The GDS group currently owns and operates 340 clinics across 24 cities under the brand, Clove Dental.

Worth US$3bn, the Indian dental services market is highly fragmented with large hospitals and dental chains accounting for under 10% of all practices, said Gaurav Sharma, head of private equity, India at Investcorp.

According to Sharma, the market is expected to double its growth to $6bn in the next five years.
“Indians need oral healthcare infrastructure, and our mission is to provide every citizen access to high-quality affordable dental care,” said Amar Singh, CEO of Global Dental Services.

“This partnership will empower us to prepare to achieve our expansion goals, and the network of our new partners will enable us to significantly accelerate our growth.”

About Investcorp

Investcorp is a global manager of alternative investments across six lines of businesses, including: private equity, real estate, absolute return investments, infrastructure, credit management, and strategic capital.
Investcorp’s Indian investments cover consumption-linked sectors as well as the real estate business.

In the private equity space, Investcorp targets opportunities across the consumer tech, healthcare, financial services, retail, SaaS, e-commerce, and technology sectors.

Investcorp’s portfolio within the Indian healthcare space also includes: V-Ensure Pharma Technologies, ASG Eye Hospitals and NephroPlus.