Changing the rules of the game

Abhay, Chairman and MD of Max Healthcare, established Max as India’s 2nd largest hospital chain while navigating the Covid-19 crisis.


In brief

  • Abhay, Chairman and MD of Max Healthcare, leverages strategic innovation and leadership to drive growth and excellence in the healthcare sector.
  • Abhay's journey from corporate finance at EY to transforming Max Healthcare highlights his expertise in restructuring and leading successful business turnarounds.
  • With a focus on strategic growth, Abhay has effectively turned Max Healthcare into one of India's leading hospital chains, emphasizing innovation and effective solutions.

Abhay Soi, Chairman and Managing Director of Max Healthcare Institute, was with EY as part of our Corporate Finance practice in the Delhi office.

A family of stalwarts

A family of stalwarts Born in Delhi, Abhay comes from a family-owned business background, with a sharp focus on the value of education. His great grandfather was an engineer with a PhD degree in hydropower and set up the first-ever power plant in Delhi. Abhay’s grandfather went to the US to study engineering, worked in Amsterdam, and returned to India to set up the neon signage business. After completing his mathematics honors degree from St. Stephens College in Delhi, Abhay’s father inherited this family business. With such an impetus on education, Abhay, who was an average student at Modern School, Barakhamba, decided to set the ambitious goal of following in his father’s footsteps, and graduate from St. Stephen’s. After his graduation and an MBA from the European University in Antwerp, and to pursue his interest in mergers and acquisitions (M&A), Abhay stepped into an internship in the corporate finance team at EY.

Learning life-long lessons

As an intern in 1996, a young Abhay, with an MBA from a European University, felt like an “outsider” among IIT and IIM graduates who impressed the bosses with their strong analytical skills. As his internship got extended, he grew impatient. And then came the defining moment of his career — a piece of advice from a senior colleague that changed his life —“the only way to gain acceptance is to make yourself indispensable.” This advice nudged him to change his focus to the emerging practice of restructuring. For over a decade, Abhay significantly contributed as a turnaround specialist and led financial restructuring as part of the journey. About working with EY, he shares, “The structure in my working, ecosystem and bearings has not come from my education but from working at EY. I learnt a lot over there. So, my entire training and knowledge of what needs to be done happened at EY, and for that, I will always be grateful.”

The entrepreneurial journey begins…

Abhay was going full throttle in his restructuring career when one fine day, he decided to quit the consulting world and do something new. “I told myself that I don’t see myself becoming a senior partner at a consulting firm one day,” says Abhay. And thus, in 2004, he set up Halcyon Partners, a restructuring firm and sowed the roots of his entrepreneurial journey. Abhay soon founded a workout group and asked his friends to give him sweat equity in their troubled or distressed companies and give him a small retainer to keep his expenses going. Success got him money, and failures taught him lessons. And those lessons helped him eventually in turning around hospitals. Abhay, in his own words, benefitted from both successes and failures while restructuring some of the brick-and-mortar companies as those learning experiences further strenghthend his foundations. Halcyon’s big break came in early 2007 when one of Abhay’s friends connected to one of the most celebrated investors in the US, running a US$30 billion fund. As the relationship fructified, Abhay got a big mandate in India and suddenly, he had an office, a 20-member staff, and a mandate that gave him a 25% share in any gain. The India fund closed in 2009 but by then, Abhay, with over 14 years in the restructuring business, was sitting on a strong foundation and now itching for his next big opportunity.

The itch to differentiate himself

 In 2010, after spending almost a decade turning companies around, Abhay stepped into the healthcare business, which he had no experience in, by acquiring Radiant Life Care, a healthcare and hospital management company. Radiant first commissioned the long-stressed BLK Hospital. A 650-bed hospital spread across five acres, Delhi’s BL Kapoor Hospital was on the block. Nine years of constructing this facility resulted in substantial cost overruns. Abhay, who had seen both spectacular turnaround successes and dramatic failures in his career, thought he could make a successful business of it if he got the facility at book value. It took Abhay eight long and stressful months to raise capital to take over operations at the BLK facility. But that was just the beginning. The first thing Abhay did was to get a professional specializing in brand architecture for urban infrastructure, to revamp BLK’s branding. Abhay’s next challenge was to rope in hospital clinicians and administrators, as Radiant was new to the business. By then, Abhay knew how to take on the challenges head-on. He turned almost every adversity into an opportunity. After the success with BLK, Abhay was looking for a property that fits his goal of creating a “metro-centric quaternary care institute.” And that is when he spotted Mumbai’s iconic hospital — Nanavati. After turning around BLK, he took over the operations of Nanavati Hospital in Mumbai in 2014, which was under deep financial stress and revamped it within two years. The same Nanavati Hospital that lost INR 5 crore a month before the turnaround reported a 60% increase in revenue within the first four months. The impressive turnovers of BLK and Nanavati placed Abhay’s Radiant Life Care among India’s largest healthcare management firms, with over 2,500 beds in the heart of the country’s top two metros.

The Max(ed) deal

 

In 2019, Abhay got the opportunity to partner with Max. He seized the opportunity as it was precisely the kind of task he revelled in. Abhay’s biggest upfront task was to restructure the hospital chain that was reeling under low margins and cost inefficiencies. Abhay spent three years restructuring the business and successfully drove top-line growth and bottomline margin improvements. By June 2020, Max Healthcare Institute (merger and demerger of Radiant Life, Max Healthcare, and Max India) emerged as India’s second-largest hospital company by market capitalization and revenue.

 

Punching a hole through the sky…

A quick look at the financial performances of the hospitals he leads will reveal that Abhay’s midas touch continues to work. Abhay has successfully redefined the paradigm by not imposing his brand, but by maneuvering a quick turnaround while banking on the hospitals’ existing goodwill to reintroduce them as modern, super-speciality hospitals. But Abhay is not a man in a hurry. “I want to focus more on philanthropy through the Soi Foundation, which my wife manages. Together we want to focus on women empowerment, girl education, and medical facilities for the unprivileged. Kindness makes the world go round,” he concluded.

Summary 

Abhay's time at EY was transformative, emphasizing indispensability and restructuring. He developed key skills in leadership, strategic planning, and managing high-pressure situations. Working with senior partners, he gained valuable insights into financial processes and global projects. These experiences laid the foundation for his success in transforming Max Healthcare into a leading hospital chain.


Related articles

Building relationships through peaks and troughs

Amit Jain, Group CEO of Emaar Properties, has led global expansion and success, showcasing his talent of forging enduring relationships.

23 Oct 2024 EY India

Pushing the barriers of excellence

An EY alumnus and EuroKids Chief Financial Officer Rajiv Pillai shares his exceptional EY experience.

24 Feb 2021 EY India

The curious banker

Read Seshasayee Shankaranarayanan, Director, Barclays account on his exceptional EY experience.

05 Dec 2019 EY India

    About this article