Diversification seems to be the best strategy for any company in the current times to absorb economic turbulence in the global markets. Investing in multiple sectors is $2 billion group Spice Gobal’s core mantra for the coming few years. Spearheading this diversification regime, Group’s Chief Investment Officer, Ozi Amanat discussed with The Pioneer’s Correspondent Anchal Kakroo the roadmap to become a $ 5 billion conglomerate in the coming three years through strategic investments in various upcoming verticals. Below are the excerpts from a detailed interview with Ozi Amanat.
Tell us about the diversification strategy Spice Group has adoptedIJ
We have been focussing on investing in sectors to expand our reach to various new sectors, which have a lot of growth potential. We already have done a few investments and plan to further invest in 6- 12 new ventures. We plan to make these investments as soon as possible, may be one in every couple of months. For this purpose, we already have tied up with a Silicon Valley based venture firm and keenly looking for investment opportunities both globally as well as in India. The group is already present in four sectors and going forward we plan to make Spice Global a $5 billion group. I see this happening in the next three years only and this growth would come from healthcare and financial sectors, where we are planning to invest heavily.
What new sectors are you eyeing to invest in and how much money are you willing to spendIJ
As a part of expanding our portfolio, we plan to spend $ 0.5 billion and hope to raise $ 0.5 billion plus from institutions and investors from across the world. We already are in talks with a lot of players and whoever would be the best partner for us, we will go further. The Group plans to invest the most in the healthcare business, specifically in healthcare infrastructure. Apart from that we are also working on expanding towards the financial services segment. We already have applied for the banking licence and would soon announce a major tie-up in this segment.
Please share the details of what are the plans towards setting up a bank if you receive the licenseIJ
We are very confident of partnering with a global bank to set up our own financial business and also a bank if we get the licence. I cannot share the specific details about the international bank but can tell you it is a well established international bank with nearly 200 years of experience in the financial business. It is one of the top 5 prominent banks in the world with almost $ 200 billion under management. We are very confident that the tie up would happen and even if we do not get the banking licence, Spice Global would still enter the financial segment through this new venture.
The group was also looking for raising funds for expansion of your hospital, what is the status of this fund raisingIJ
Yes, we are working on raising funds for expansion of our hospitals. We plan to increase our hospital capacities from 250 beds to almost 700 beds. Apart from that, we plan to invest another $650 million towards our Healthcare City. The project would be based in Delhi for which we already have acquired 15 acres of land. Many private equity players, institutions and venture capitalists have shown interest in the project and we would soon be inviting investments from them.
By when do you plan to start this fund risingIJ
We have been going around the world since the last 45 days and have met various players from India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, london, New York, Boston and Dubai. Apart from private equity and institutions, a few big multinational healthcare companies have shown interest in our project. We already have officials of the major healthcare giants visiting the Healthcare City. And we are expecting that the fund rising would start by the end of this year.