PharmEasy to buy a 66.1% stake in Thyrocare for Rs 4,546 Cr

Online pharmacy brand PharmEasy's parent company API Holdings has announced the signing of definitive documents to acquire 66.1% stake in Thyrocare for about Rs 4,546 crore.

Docon Technologies Pvt Ltd, a 100% subsidiary of API, will be the acquirer and shall make an open offer for an additional 26% stake, said the company in a press release. In return, A Velumani, Chairman & MD of Thyrocare will acquire a minority stake of 5% in API Holdings.

According to PharmEasy, this will be the first-ever acquisition of a listed company by an Indian startup unicorn.

“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.” said Siddharth Shah, CEO, API Holdings.

PharmEasy claims to have a user base of 12 million consumers and a network of 6,000 digital consultation clinics and 90,000 partner retailers across the country. It currently serves over 1 million patients for their pharmacy and diagnostics needs.

The synergy with Thyrocare will help PharmEasy to strengthen its positioning in the diagnostics industry. It’s worth noting that Thyrocare has a network of 3,330 collection centres across 2,000 towns in India.

The only unicorn in the online pharmacy space, PharmEasy recently raised $20 million through a secondary infusion by B Capital. According to an ET report, the Mumbai-based firm was valued at around $1.8 billion and may raise $20 million in a primary round from Tiger Global.

Over the past 12 months, the online pharmacy space has witnessed large consolidations. In August 2020, Reliance had acquired NetMeds in a deal worth $88.5 million followed by the merger of PharmEasy and Medlife in September. Earlier this month, Tata Digital, a subsidiary of Tata Sons Private Ltd, had announced that it would acquire a majority stake in e-pharmacy platform 1mg.