Indian Billionaire Devi Shetty’s Narayana Health To Enter U.K. Market In $248 Million Deal

Chairman of Narayana Hrudayalaya Hospitals Devi Shetty during a press conference in Bangalore, India, Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2012. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

Copyright 2012 AP. All rights reserved.

Narayana Health—the Indian hospital chain founded by billionaire cardiac surgeon Devi Shetty—has agreed to acquire Practice Plus Group Hospitals for £189million ($248 million), marking its first entry into the U.K. market.

The Bangalore-based company, through its unit Narayana Hrudayalaya U.K. will acquire all 60,001 shares, representing a 100% stake in Practice Plus Group, at £3,146 apiece, according to a recent stock exchange filing.

“Like Narayana Health, Practice Plus Group recognized that the majority of patients were struggling to access healthcare, while only a minority could afford costly private healthcare,” Shetty, chairman of Narayana Health said in a statement. “We have both been working to meet the demands of those in between, and to offer a choice of more accessible private healthcare.”

Practice Plus Group is the fourth-largest provider for the U.K.’s public funded National Health Service (NHS), with NHS patients accounting for 93% of its £229-million revenue in the year ended September 2024. The company projects revenue this year to increase to around £250 million. It operates 10 hospitals and surgical centers with a total of 330 beds and 2,500 employees.

Narayana Health operates 18 hospitals across India with over 5,200 beds, along with one hospital in the Cayman Islands that has 169 beds. The company’s revenue rose 12% to 54.8 billion rupees in the year ended March 2025 compared to the previous year. After the deal is completed, Narayana Health projected that it will be among India’s top three healthcare providers by revenue.

With an estimated net worth of $2.6 billion, Shetty is among the wealthiest in the country. He founded Narayana Health as Narayana Hrudayalaya in the year 2000 and took the company public in 2015. Biopharma billionaire Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw has a small stake in the company.