Metropolis Healthcare Aims To Boost North India Presence With Agra Diagnostic Chain Acquisition

Metropolis Healthcare’s acquisition of Agra-based diagnostic chain Scientific Pathology is aimed at strengthening its presence in Western UP and North India, according to the company’s Promoter and Executive Chairperson Ameera Shah.

“We felt that by partnering with the leader from Western UP, which is Scientific Pathology in Agra, it would create a great entry point for us but also a great access for all people of UP for 4,000 varieties of tests that we offer,” said Shah in an interaction with NDTV Profit.

The cost of the acquisition ranges from Rs 55 crore to Rs 83 crore. The price has been determined at 12.2 times of adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation over a pre-defined period, the company said in a stock exchange filing earlier this week, on March 3.

Commenting on the wide gap between the upper limit and lower limit of the price range, Shah said that it is a convertible structure. The agreement has been signed now and the deal will be closed before the end of March.

At the time of closing, Metropolis Healthcare expects Scientific Pathology to be valued at Rs 63 crore, but the number can go up to Rs 83 crore based on its June 2025 audited numbers.

“We've done this many times before, where we've acquired the leading player in a city and then we've really grown them out in a significant way over five to 10 years across the entire region and we're hoping to do the same thing with Scientific Technology,” Shah explained.

In FY26, the newly acquired Scientific Pathology may not add significantly to the company’s revenue but it is a good entry point, according to Shah.

“It's the leading chain in Agra. Its revenue is about Rs 26 crore in FY24-25 and it's a profitable entity. So, it will be a little bit higher than the Metropolis margin profile and that will get fully added into the FY25-26 number and obviously whatever growth that we see from the base of Rs 26 crore in FY26. While it's not adding anything very large to the revenue, it is a great entry point,” Shah said.

“We’ve done this many times before, where we acquired the leading player in a city and then really grown them out in a significant way over the next 5-10 years across the region. We are hoping to do the same thing with scientific technology.”

For Metropolis, Scientific Pathology is its second acquisition in north India over the last three months. In December 2024, it had acquired Delhi-based cancer testing chain Core Diagnostics for Rs 247 crore via a cash and stock deal.

Metropolis has a strong presence in Punjab and it is exploring good entry points in Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand as well, according to Shah.

Shares of Metropolis Healthcare closed 1.7% higher at Rs 1,656 apiece on the NSE, while the benchmark Nifty50 settled 0.93% higher at 22,544.7.