Religare Wellness Ltd (formerly Fortis Healthworld Ltd) has acquired a controlling stake in Lifetime Healthcare Pvt Ltd, which operates the LifeKen and Pill & Powder chain of health and wellness stores in South and West India.

Commenting on the acquisition, Dr Sanjeev Chaudhry, CEO, Religare Wellness Ltd said, "The shareholders of both Religare Wellness and Lifetime Healthcare believe the deal is a significant step in building of a large scale, pan-India entity that will lead the wellness retail sector in India."

It will exploit the significant synergies that can be brought to the table from the scale of operations of the combined entity. The entity shall also leverage the significant knowledge and understanding of the sector that exists in the two organizations, and shall also significantly benefit from the linkages with other businesses under the Religare umbrella.

"The promoters of LifeKen group have known the promoters of Religare for more than a decade now. I am pretty certain that the experience of Religare Wellness Ltd would help take our stores to altogether a next level. We look forward to seeing our original vision taking more concrete shape on the ground with Religare," added Pranabh Mody, promoter, LifeKen.

"The key to Religare's success lies in its service orientation. The Religare brand stands for values that define diligence and excellence in operational efficiencies aimed to deliver customer delight. As a group we have a significant understanding of both the retail and wellness space which we shall leverage effectively going forward," said Sunil Godhwani, spokesperson on behalf on the promoter group.

Lifetime Healthcare also referred to as LifeKen, operates over 70 pharmacy and wellness stores in Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune under the LifeKen and Pill & Powder brands. Consequent to the deal, Religare wellness now has an operations footprint in North, South and West India.

Religare Wellness recently also acquired CRS Health, a wellness retail chain which operates 40 stores in Delhi, Chennai and Pune With the acquisition of LifeKen controlled stores, Religare Wellness would now become, nearly, a 200 store strong chain in the wellness retail space. Going forward, among other plans Religare Wellness also intends to implement best-in-class ERP platforms and create a robust infrastructure system to support its ambitious growth plans.