Daijiworld Media Network – Mumbai
Mumbai, May 21: Cloudnine Hospitals, one of India’s leading maternity and paediatric healthcare chains, is set to acquire Apollo Cradle and Apollo Fertility, strengthening its position in the country’s rapidly growing mother-and-child healthcare sector.
Apollo Health and Lifestyle Limited (AHLL) announced on Wednesday that it will hold a 9.9 per cent stake in the combined entity following the transaction, making it the largest non-financial shareholder. AHLL will also have board representation through a nominee director.
According to the company, the deal values AHLL’s standalone mother-and-child and fertility businesses at around ?1,550 crore through a combination of cash and equity in the merged platform.
Cloudnine has already signed an exclusivity agreement to acquire Apollo Cradle. Reports indicate that the proposed transaction values the business at nearly Rs 1,500 crore.
Under the Apollo Cradle brand, AHLL currently operates 12 maternity centres across Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi NCR and Punjab. Apollo Fertility manages a network of 20 fertility centres across India.
Following the merger, the combined platform will operate more than 55 centres across key Indian cities under a unified management structure.
The companies said the merger aims to improve access to specialised maternity, fertility, neonatal and women’s healthcare services across different income groups and regions while leveraging a large network of senior medical professionals and global clinical governance standards.
AHLL Chairperson Dr Sangita Reddy said the combined platform could become one of the world’s largest dedicated networks for women and children’s healthcare.
“Together, we are India’s largest maternity network and potentially one of the world’s largest platforms dedicated to women and children’s health,” she said.
Founded in 2006 by neonatologist Dr R Kishore Kumar along with co-founders Rohit M A, M Ramachandra and Vidya Kumar, Bengaluru-based Cloudnine has emerged as a major player in maternity and paediatric healthcare.
Operated under Kids Clinic India Ltd, Cloudnine currently runs 40 centres across major Indian cities as of March 2025.
Private equity firms True North, TPG NewQuest and Temasek together hold around 77 per cent stake in Cloudnine, while the promoter group owns nearly 10 per cent.
Cloudnine had earlier filed draft papers in 2022 for an initial public offering worth around ?1,200 crore, but the plan was later deferred due to volatile market conditions.
Industry estimates suggest that India’s mother-and-child healthcare market, currently valued at nearly ?30,000 crore, is expected to grow at an annual rate of around 15 per cent in the coming years.