|
 Apollo
Health Street (AHS), a global healthcare outsourcing solutions
provider, has announced the acquisition of Zavata Inc., an
Atlanta-based business process outsourcing (BPO) and enterprise
support (ES) solutions company. The deal is valued at Rs 697
crore.
AHS chairman, Dr Pratap Reddy, said the
acquisition will strengthen AHS' position as a leading provider
of outsourcing solutions to the healthcare industry and also
provide its clients a more comprehensive set of service
offerings..
This is the fourth acquisition that
Apollo Health Street has made and second in the US provider
space.
Both AHS and Zavata have trained
professionals in their service centres in the US and India,
allowing them to leverage technology, time zone differences and
human expertise to deliver the right solutions to their clients,
he said, adding that the combined organisation will have more
than 100 customers and over 2,500 employees spread across
multiple location in the US and in India.
The combined organisation would be the
largest focused healthcare BPO organisation in the country with
a significant IT business, Dr Reddy claimed. The key
differentiator is that AHS is pure healthcare focused and
leverages its domain in delivering value to its clients.
Further, it has the most extensive experience in adapting the
global delivery model to the healthcare industry, he pointed
out.
Dr Reddy said every other sector, including
financial services or manufacturing, has benefited from the
global delivery model and the US healthcare market is also
beginning to take advantage of it.
"AHS has always differentiated itself through
its deep domain knowledge and healthcare background and the
acquisition of Zavata will enable it to further improve the
financial strength and liquidity for the healthcare industry,
enabling healthcare organisations to focus on their core
objective of providing high quality patient care," adds Dr
Reddy.
"There are significant synergies to be
achieved from this transaction, and the acquisition of Zavata
has helped us position AHS as one of the largest, fuliy
integrated healthcare BPO companies in the world with further
capabilities in providing enterprise support services," says
Sangita Reddy, managing director, Apollo Health Street. "In
addition to the set of services we already offer, Zavata adds a
complementary set of services including expertise in areas such
as full business office and emergency medical transport
billing."
The acquisition comes at a time when the US
healthcare sector is looking at ways to reduce costs while
improving service quality to the end consumer.
Commenting on the acquisition, Andrew DeVoe,
CEO and president of the AHS group, said, "I am excited about
the scale, breadth and depth of services and the diversified
geographic footprint that this acquisition provides to AHS. We
are a premier healthcare outsourcing services provider with a
very strong foundation that provides a robust base and
continuity to fundamentally address all the fmancial concerns
for healthcare organisations. Both AHS and Zavata customers will
benefit from our combined capabilities in each of our four key
businesses - Provider, Payor, IT and ES."
"I am extremely pleased that Zavata has found
a perfect partner in Apollo Health Street. Our business
strategies and appetite for growth are very much aligned and I
am confident that this transaction will yield great rewards to
our customers and employees," adds Satish Sanan, executive
chairman and CEO of Zavata Inc.
Satish will stay on as a consultant in the
merged entity to ensure a smooth integration of Zavata into
Apollo Health Street. Zavata's existing customers include
hospita1s, payors and TPAs in the hea1thcare business and its
employees are located in client centres and at its offices in
the states of Georgia, Pennsylvania, New York, California and
Florida in the US and Hyderabad in India.
Bank of India and Barclays Capital jointly
structured and provided the debt financing for this transaction.
In the face of multiple offers, the speedy efficiency and
thoroughness exhibited by these two banks is a credit to the
Indian banking system, operating in a highly competitive
international fmancial market, said Sunita Reddy, director,
Finance, Apollo.
R Rangaraj
|
