Manipal Hospitals' ₹9,275 crore IPO to strengthen balance sheet for growth
Manipal Health Enterprises will use most of its ₹9,275 crore IPO proceeds to cut debt, giving India's largest hospital chain by bed capacity room to raise capital for future acquisitions and expansion. The Temasek-backed
India’s largest hospital chain is eyeing a cleaner balance sheet to fuel its expansion plans after a public listing. Manipal Health Enterprises Ltd plans to use a large chunk of the fresh proceeds from its ₹9,275 crore IPO to settle outstanding debt, which in turn will unlock further opportunities for growth, managing director and chief executive officer Dilip Jose told Mint.
The Temasek-backed hospital chain, which opens its initial public offering on Wednesday, plans to raise up to ₹8,000 crore through a fresh issue. It has ₹7,500 crore in net debt, ₹10,000 crore in gross debt, and ₹2,500 crore in cash. A large chunk of the fresh proceeds will be used to clear the debt, said Jose.
“It gives us the opportunity that, as the years go by, and operating cash flows come in, we have the ability to raise debt if we want. As a listed company, we can also access the equity markets again. I don't think capital will ever be in short supply for growth,” said Jose.
He added that the firm would likely retain some cash on its balance sheet after the IPO while maintaining moderate leverage to fund inorganic growth. "We don't have to be net-zero. A reasonable level of leverage is what the market would expect.”
Apart from the fresh issue, the listing involves an offer-for-sale of up to 21,613,834 equity shares by promoters—Temasek's arm Imperius Healthcare Investments Pte Ltd, and Manipal Education and Medical Group India Pvt. Ltd, amounting to 1,275.22 crore on the upper price band.
Investors selling shares include TPG SG Magazine Pte Ltd, Seventy Second Investment Co. LLC—an arm of Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment Co., Ammar Sdn Bhd, Novo Holdings Invest Asia A/S and Phoenix Bear Investments, LLC.
Offer structure, growth via deals
It has fixed a price band of ₹560 to ₹590 per equity share, with a face value of ₹2/- each.
Over the past five years, Manipal has invested around ₹12,000 crore in acquisitions, with only about ₹2,000 crore funded through equity, while the rest came from debt and internal accruals. “That’s the way we would continue to grow,” said Jose.
Manipal’s big-ticket acquisitions, including the Maharashtra-based chain Sahyadri Hospitals in 2025 and Amri Hospitals in 2023, made it the largest hospital chain by bed capacity.
While it currently has over 13,000 beds across its network, the company has committed around ₹4,000 crore towards organic expansion through greenfield and brownfield projects, which are expected to add roughly 2,800-3,000 beds over the next three to four years.
On the inorganic front, Manipal expects acquisitions to continue playing a key role, although the nature of deals is changing. The company is evaluating opportunities in markets like Kerala and the National Capital Region (NCR), however, target assets may be smaller than earlier.
"Assets like Sahyadri are no longer available in the near future," he said. "We'll have to look at individual hospitals rather than large networks.”
Despite an aggressive expansion race among listed hospital operators, Jose dismissed concerns that competition would become a zero-sum game. "Being number one in terms of capacity is not a goal in itself," he said. "India remains severely underserved in terms of quality hospital beds. Whatever capacity everyone is putting in is only a fraction of what the country needs."
The listing will also prompt a shift in the firm’s approach. While the company has focused on long-term growth as a privately owned business, Jose acknowledged that public markets would bring greater scrutiny of quarterly performance, return on capital employed and shareholder expectations.
Key takeaways
- Manipal's ₹8,000 crore fresh issue will largely clear existing outstanding debt obligations.
- Company retains moderate leverage post-listing, expects continued access to debt and equity markets.
- Past acquisitions worth ₹12,000 crore were mostly debt-funded, not equity-funded, over five years.
- Future deals will target individual hospitals, not large networks like Sahyadri or AMRI.
- Listing brings scrutiny of quarterly performance and return on capital, shifting company's mindset.
About the Authors
Jessica Jani
Jessica has been tracking the pharmaceutical, life sciences and healthcare sector for Mint since November 2024. Based in the country's financial capital, she reports on everything to do with health and medicines. This includes corporate action, patent wars, deals, startup activity and consumer trends. She also keeps a keen eye on the ever-evolving world wellness and preventive health, which moves faster than regulation can keep up. She has a deep interest in what the future of health looks like and how science, innovation, policy and company decisions inform and impact the health of citizens. She has been a reporter for five years, working with publications like The Core and News18 prior to this, covering various sectors like automobiles, real estate, energy, sustainability and urban mobility. Jessica has a bachelor’s degree in English from St Xavier’s College, Mumbai and a postgraduate diploma in media from Sophia’s College, Mumbai. Her work is driven by a desire to decode how macro decisions and events alter and shape the lives of ordinary people. Drop her a mail or a message to discuss business scoops, exciting new medicines and inventions, or your latest wellness routine.
Agnidev Bhattacharya
Agnidev is a business journalist with over two years of reporting experience tracking the intersection of capital, policy, and corporate strategy in India.
He joined Mint in December 2025, after a stint at NDTV Profit (erstwhile BQ Prime). At Mint, Agnidev focuses on the high-stakes world of the Indian capital market, specialising in mergers and acquisitions, burgeoning IPOs, and the investment banking industry.
Backed by a rigorous, data-driven approach, Agnidev frequently breaks news on the valuation cycles, deal pipelines and listing strategies of India’s most prominent companies. His reportage offers deep dives into the operational health of market leaders across the corporate landscape, providing readers with a clear-eyed view of institutional growth.
He has reported on major issues like India's derivatives frenzy, IPO froth, the competitive quick commerce industry, the real-money gaming ban, and has broken investigative stories related to scandals such as IndusInd Bank's accounting manipulation and the Gensol-BluSmart fiasco.
As a reporter, he brings stories that ultimately affect your stock market investments, and tries to bring clarity and brevity in a field that is often filled with jargon and noise.
Source: Livemint — Companies
