New Delhi, Aug. 20 -- Swiss investment firm HBM Healthcare Investments has invested in another Indian company, growing its local portfolio that already includes privately held online pharmacy Tata 1mg and a few Mumbai-listed drugmakers.

The Zug, Switzerland-headquartered firm, which also invested in Tata Capital Healthcare Fund's first private equity vehicle as the anchor limited partner over a decade ago, bought shares worth Rs 47.5 crore (about $5 million) in Mumbai-listed Thyrocare Technologies Ltd via an open market transaction last week.

This will give HBM a little less than 0.5% stake in the diagnostics chain, back-of-the-envelope calculations show.

HBM bought the shares from Docon Technologies Pvt Ltd, the diagnostics company's holding entity. Docon, which also runs online pharmacy Pharmeasy, sold a total of around 15.8 million shares, equating to about a 9.9% stake in Thyrocare. Subsequently, Docon's shareholding in Thyrocare declined to 51.02% from 60.92%.

The share sale helped API Holdings, the ultimate parent company of PharmEasy and Thyrocare, clear the Rs 1,050 crore of debt that was incurred in connection with the 2021 Thyrocare acquisition.

According to a separate disclosure on Wednesday, as much as Rs 1,700 crore of debt, which was raised by issuing non-convertible debentures (NCD) by pledging Docon's 60.92% stake in Thyrocare, was repaid.

In 2021, PharmEasy acquired a majority stake in Thyrocare for Rs 4,546 crore ($613 million at the time), buying a 66.1% stake via Docon. However, it incurred significant debt for the acquisition, given Thyrocare's larger size.

In October last year, it repaid a portion of the debt worth Rs 500 crore without selling any shares.

Meanwhile, HBM owns assets worth 2.1 billion Swiss francs holding a global portfolio of emerging private and small-cap public life sciences companies. The firm's highest exposure is to the US, but it is increasing allocation in emerging markets such as China and India.

In India, HBM has invested in companies such as Aurobindo Pharma, Dishman Carbogen, OneSource Specialty Pharma, Laurus Labs, Sakar Healthcare, Solara Active Pharma Sciences Ltd, Sai Life Sciences Ltd and Tata 1mg.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from VC Circle.