Medical device major Skanray's Make in India struggles

Make in India should come as good news to this indigenous medical equipment manufacturer. But it only adds to the various challenges it's already facing in the market. Skanray shook up the industry with its massive L&T acquisition in late 2012 - today, though, with dipping revenue and a changing market, it's not looking so good

Mysuru-based Skanray spent its initial years from 2007 to 2011 in R&D

More than a decade later, a slew of acquisitions later, its revenue today stands at Rs 220 crore. There's been a significant fall

The Indian medical device market is dominated by MNCs, trading companies and aggregators

With a credit crunch, Skanray's being forced, against its DNA, to avoid bank debts and embrace PE to get working capital

Earlier this month, Niti Aayog, the Indian government’s think tank, held a high-level meeting, with the secretaries of all stakeholder ministries—including the Ministry of Health—present. The agenda was simple. Boost the local manufacturing of medical devices—currently a $10 billion market.

India’s medical devices market is the fourth largest in Asia—after Japan, China and South Korea—and is projected to grow to $50 billion by 2025, as per industry estimates. However, while there are over 6,000 types of medical devices available worldwide, barely one-sixth of them are made in India.

You see, in India, imports rule. About 80-90% of the medical electronics/equipment in the country are imported, according to the industry body Association of Indian Medical Industry (AiMED).

So import-dependent is the sector that AiMED submitted a seven-point agenda to the Pharmaceuticals Secretary this month in a bid to ‘revive’ it. Among other points, AiMED suggested increasing the import duty to incentivise domestic manufacturing.

One would think this pro-indigenous manufacturing move would be celebrated by the likes of Vishwaprasad Alva, founder of Indian medical device company Skanray Technologies Pvt Ltd. After all, Skanray launched commercially in 2011 with the aim of manufacturing devices such as X-ray machines, ventilators and patient monitors from the ground up in India. Years before “Make In India” became fashionable.

But now, eight years later, the Mysuru-based company is yet to fulfil its potential. The rampant imports have hamstrung Skanray, and Alwa does not mince words when asked about the AiMED’s push for local manufacturing. “I can’t sit with these so-called Indian manufacturers with outdated technology and push outdated tech into the market. But I also don’t want to be seen as somebody who is hostile to Make in India. So it’s a very tricky situation,” he says.

Skanray’s financials over the years do not make for pretty reading. It has been profitable in only two years, and its revenue growth has been erratic—spiking only when Skanray made acquisitions.

The biggest jump came in the year ended March 2014, shortly after the company made multiple acquisitions, most notably that of engineering company Larsen & Toubro’s (L&T) medical technology business in the end of 2012. Skanray’s revenue surged to Rs 115 crore ($16 million) in the year ended March 2014 from a meagre Rs 0.49 crore ($68,200) three years prior. It was a statement of intent. Skanray had acquired a business with Rs 145 crore ($20 million) in revenue—20X its own turnover. “But in terms of valuation, we were 1.5 times higher,” Alva says, looking back.

M&A

In 2016, Skanray acquired Mectron India and Cardia International in Netherlands. Cardia’s acquisition added to their portfolio stressSKANcardi that provided vitals like pacemaker pulse and defibrillation protection. In 2017, it had joint ventures in the US, Mexico and Brazil, distribution agreements in Southeast Asia, Egypt, the Middle East and North Africa region.

AUTHOR

Suraksha P

Suraksha writes on Healthcare and Pharma. She has been a journalist for five years, reporting for The New Indian Express in Bengaluru and Chennai, and The Times of India, Delhi. In her previous stints she has written on health, civic issues and education. She investigated cover up of corruption in the state health department’s think tank, narrated harrowing tales of women who underwent unwarranted hysterectomies, and wrote about how loss of biometrics came in the way of Leprosy patients getting an Aadhaar card and thereby pension. She can be reached at suraksha at the-ken dot com.

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