Quadria Capital aims to raise up to $1 billion for new Asia healthcare fund

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Quadria Capital is looking to raise up to $1 billion for its third and biggest fund as the Asian healthcare-focused private equity firm seeks to tap into the fast-growing sector in south and southeast Asia, its top executives said.

The Singapore-based firm has raised about $500 million so far and expects to close the fund by the second quarter of 2024, founders and managing partners Abrar Mir and Amit Varma told Reuters.

The fundraising comes against a backdrop of growing global demand for healthcare assets across Asia, lured by the region's growth prospects and the sector's ability to weather challenging economic environments.

"We see a lot of high-quality deal flow primarily because across Asia you not only have very strong domestic demand ... but also there is that separate force where Asia, whether it's ASEAN or India, is getting better as a global manufacturer of healthcare products," Mir said.

In 2022, private equity buyout deals in the Asia-Pacific healthcare sector exceeded $19 billion, surpassing the previous year's $17.8 billion record, showed a report by U.S.-headquartered consultancy Bain & Company.

Bain expects investor interest in Asia-Pacific healthcare private equity to stay strong, with India and Southeast Asia as markets to watch as investors bet on large unmet healthcare needs supporting hospital sectors in both regions.

Quadria's new fund will continue to focus on South Asia and Southeast Asia, where it had in July sealed the region's largest transaction since 2020 with the sale of Vietnam's FV Hospital to Singapore's Thomson Medical Group for $381.4 million.

"The reason we're doing ASEAN and India is because you're looking at a three billion population," said Varma, who is also a critical care physician. ASEAN refers to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

"While the culture, the cuisine, the religion changes country by country in this market, the problems of healthcare are exactly the same," he said.

"It's lack of infrastructure, lack of talent and the inability of our patients to pay for quality healthcare."

Founded in 2012, Quadria has assets under management of over $3.4 billion, its website showed. It completed the exit of Concord Biotech following an initial public offering of the Indian biopharmaceutical company in August.

In 2020, Quadria closed its second fund at $600 million, exceeding its initial $400 million target.

(Reporting by Yantoultra Ngui; Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee and Christopher Cushing)

By Yantoultra Ngui