Carlyle Group purchased a 13.5% stake in Meinian Onehealth Healthcare Co, showing  confidence in the development of preventive healthcare checkup services in China and the role private medical agencies play. “The preventive healthcare checkup service industry of China is growing at 15% a year,” said Feng Junyuan, Managing Director of the Carlyle Group. “The annual revenue of the Chinese preventive healthcare checkup service industry is between CNY40 billion and CNY50 billion,” said Yu Rong, Chairman of Meinian Onehealth
Healthcare Co. Founded in 2004, the Shanghai-based company became China’s largest private provider of preventive healthcare checkup services in 2011. The company owns a network of 83 clinics in 41 cities, including Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, Shenzhen and Chengdu. About 20 of them will open by the end of 2012. According to Yu, the company will serve more than 3 million individuals this year. By the end of 2015, it is expected to have 300 clinics around China. Carlyle also owns a stake in China Concord Medical Service Co, a medical service network. Carlyle has invested about USD4 billion in more than 60 deals in China.

Meanwhile, Beijing-based Ciming Health Checkup Management Co, a leading private provider of checkup services, is preparing for its IPO on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. According to its prospectus, the Chinese health checkup market registered 287 million visits in 2010, an increase of 24.8% from the previous year. In late 2007, iKang Guobin Healthcare Group — another Beijing-based preventive healthcare checkup service provider — received investments from investors including Merrill Lynch and ePlanet Ventures totaling USD25 million. By the end of 2011, the company had 25 clinics in China.