Corporate Greed (Part 9): Asia, Africa & South America (#472)

Walk into a clinic in Shanghai, São Paulo or Nairobi and the story still looks familiar:the smell of disinfectant, a nervous dog on the scales, a vet with a name badge rather than a corporate lanyard.

But, increasingly, the money behind the scenes is changing.

In Europe, Australia, and North America, we already know the script:

Independent practices pulled into chains, chains sold to private-equity funds or conglomerates, prices and pressure quietly rising.

Parts of Asia, Africa and South America are now entering the same movie, just a little later in the reel.

The data are patchier, the brands less familiar, but the pattern is recognizable.

Asia: Where Tech Money Meets Pet Hospitals

• China – from clinics to platforms

• China is now one of the most advanced examples of corporate vet med outside Europe and North America.

• New Ruipeng Pet Healthcare Group runs around 1,400 pet hospitals in more than 80 cities, the largest chain in China.

• In 2020, tech giant Tencent led a funding round worth hundreds of millions of US dollars, valuing New Ruipeng at about US$4.4 billion and bringing in strategic investors like Boehringer Ingelheim and Country Garden’s venture arm.

• New Ruipeng later filed for a US Nasdaq listing, before withdrawing its US$100m IPO in 2024 amid tougher market conditions and regulatory scrutiny.

• Another fast-growing chain, Ruichen Pet Hospital Group, has attracted Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR), one of the world’s biggest private equity firms:

• KKR led an investment round in 2022; industry coverage notes that Ruichen now owns nearly 200 hospitals in 50 cities, making it one of the top three chains in China.

  
  

• In other words: the same global funds that buy telecom towers and toll roads now own large slices of China’s small-animal sector.

• Japan, India and Southeast Asia - foreign consolidators and Mars

• Corporate groups are also appearing across the rest of Asia:

• A’alda, a Japanese company positioning itself as a regional pet-life platform, has opened Dogs, Cats & Companions (DCC) Animal Hospitals in India and Japan, describing itself as the first foreign company to build a multi-hospital network in India and announcing plans for a national chain of multispecialty hospitals.

• Mars Veterinary Health has been quietly building an Asian footprint:

• It acquired Mount Pleasant Veterinary Group in Singapore in 2021, taking over a multi-clinic network across the city-state.

• It bought Asia Veterinary Diagnostics, a Hong Kong and Singapore-based lab network now rolled into Mars’ Antech diagnostics business and expanding across Southeast Asia.

• In Thailand, Mars acquired Phyathai 7 Group’s veterinary hospitals, its first hospital group in that country.

• These deals sit alongside Mars’ broader pet-care activities in Asia, from food brands to diagnostics, creating a vertically integrated presence similar to its position in Europe and North America.

• South America - Retail Giants Move Into Hospitals

  
  

  • If China is the story of tech and private equity money, Brazil is the story of pet retail empires building hospital networks around themselves.

    
    

  • Brazil - Petz, Seres - the big-box model

  
  

  • Petz has become Brazil’s dominant pet retailer and a listed company on the São Paulo exchange.

    
    

  • In 2018, Petz launched Seres Veterinary Centers, its hospital and clinic arm. The company openly aims to install a Seres facility in each megastore, combining retail and clinical services.

    
    

  • Petz now describes Seres as the largest network of veterinary centers in Brazil, integrated into a broader pet ecosystem that also includes grooming, adoption and insurance.

• In 2025, Brazil’s antitrust authority CADE approved a merger between Petz and rival retailer Cobasi, uniting the country’s two largest pet-product chains in a cash-and-share swap - a decision that could reshape both retail and attached veterinary services.

• Market analysts value the Brazilian veterinary hospital market at around US$1.6 billion in 2024 with expectations it will approach US$2.8 billion by 2033 - a growth curve that makes hospital chains an obvious target for investors.

• Petlove and L Catterton - private equity builds the digital side

• On the digital front, Petlove, founded by a Brazilian veterinarian, has grown into the country’s largest online pet-shop and subscription platform.

  
  

• In 2020, L Catterton Latin America, the consumer-focused private equity firm backed by Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH), made a significant strategic investment.

  
  

• Petlove’s model goes beyond selling food and toys. Its subscription plans and online vet services give private equity investors something attractive: recurring revenue and detailed data on pet owners’ spending, ready to be connected to future brick-and-mortar clinics or insurance products.

• Beyond Brazil

• Data on corporate hospital chains elsewhere in South America is thinner, but industry reports increasingly flag Latin America - especially Brazil, Mexico and parts of the Southern Cone (Argentina, Chile, & Uruguay) - as untapped growth markets for pet healthcare consolidation.

  
  

• The ingredients look familiar:

  
  

  Rising pet ownership, a growing middle class, and under-capitalized independent clinics.

• Africa - Early Days, Familiar Pressures

• Relative to other regions, Africa is still in the early stages of corporatization of companion-animal practice.

• Market studies estimate the South African animal health and veterinary market at about US$1.1 billion, driven by rising pet ownership and livestock production.

• These reports already talk explicitly about corporate veterinary chains in the Middle East & Africa, with South Africa singled out as a key country in forecast models - even if clinic-level consolidation remains modest for now.

• Much of the corporate activity at present looks more like:

• Franchise models in rehabilitation and pet services,

• National retail chains selling food and products, and

• Multinational drug and vaccine companies (Zoetis, MSD, Elanco, Virbac, etc.) embedded in the production-animal sector.

• But the pattern is clear:

• Urban pet populations are growing.

• Independent clinics often lack access to capital, diagnostics and management support.

• Global investors and conglomerates (including Mars) already have a toehold via products, labs and partnerships.

Africa may not yet have its own New Ruipeng or Petz, but the market research, investor slide decks, and early franchises suggest that day is coming.

• Follow the Money - Who’s Actually in Control?

• Across these three regions, the same types of investors keep appearing:

• Global tech and consumer giants

• Tencent backing New Ruipeng in China.

• Mars, Inc. rolling out hospital chains, diagnostic labs and reference centers from Singapore to Thailand.

• Private-equity funds

• KKR in Ruichen Pet Hospital Group.

• L Catterton in Petlove’s Brazilian platform.

• Real estate and infrastructure investors

• Nomura Real Estate partnering with A’alda to scale veterinary hospitals as a pet-lifestyle asset class in Japan and India.

• For these actors, veterinary medicine is attractive not because of the smell of isoflurane or the satisfaction of a well-handled dystocia, but because it offers:

• Recurring, non-cyclical cash flows.

• Fragmented markets ripe for roll-ups.

• Room for price increases in an emotionally charged service.

Early Warning Signs - Learning from Europe and North America

• Because the corporate wave is newer in Asia, Africa and South America, we don’t yet have CMA-style inquiries or decades of price data.

• What we do have are:

• Market reports describing rapid growth in hospital revenue and the rising dominance of chains in China and Brazil.

• Investor presentations that explicitly frame veterinary chains as high-margin, defensive assets akin to private hospitals or dialysis centers.

• If Asia, Africa and South America follow Europe and North America, we can expect:

• Price inflation outpacing general inflation, especially in urban centers.\

• Concentration of ownership in a few hands, limiting genuine competition.

• Surging moral distress among vets as KPIs and financial targets begin to shape clinical culture.

• A steady erosion of independent second opinions and locally tailored approaches.

• These outcomes are not inevitable. But they are extremely predictable if regulators and professional bodies treat corporate consolidation as merely modernization.

So, Is This Just Corporate Greed?

• As always, the picture is mixed.

• New chains in India or Brazil may bring modern equipment, 24-hour care, and formalized training that some independents cannot afford.

• Some corporate hospitals do invest in quality, research and staff benefits.

• The problem is structural:

• When Tencent, KKR or a Brazilian private equity fund backs a chain, it is doing so with the expectation of double-digit returns and a profitable exit, not simply a steady income stream and a happy client base.

• When vet practices are treated as part of a pet-retail or tech ecosystem, clinical decisions risk becoming subordinate to cross-selling and data monetization.

Call it corporate greed or call it financialization.

Either way, it pushes veterinary medicine away from its roots as a community profession and towards a model where everything is a product and every visit a yield opportunity.

What Needs to Happen Next in Asia, Africa & South America

• These regions still have time to avoid repeating the worst mistakes of Europe and North America.

• Radical transparency from the start

• Mandatory ownership disclosure at clinic level, including ultimate beneficial owners and major investors.

• Clear labeling of corporate chains versus genuine independents, so clients can make informed choices.

• Smarter, earlier competition oversight

• Competition authorities should monitor serial acquisitions and roll-ups in veterinary services, not just giant, one-off mergers.

• Local market concentration (how many clinics in one city share an owner) should matter as much as national revenue.

• Real professional control

• Where laws require vet ownership, close the loopholes that allow management-service companies or fund covenants to control the real decisions.

• Regional veterinary associations should develop minimum standards for clinical autonomy that apply regardless of who owns the shares.

• Support for independent and mission-driven models

• Encourage co-ops, employee-owned clinics, and non-profit hospitals, especially in underserved areas.

• Ensure independents have access to diagnostics, education and purchasing power so they are not squeezed out by vertically integrated conglomerates.

A Final Word

Asia, Africa and South America are not behind Europe, Australia, and North America.

They are simply earlier in the same experiment.

If we treat corporatization as inevitable, we will wake up in ten years to find that:

• A handful of funds and conglomerates set the terms of practice, and

• The exam room has become just another outlet in someone’s global portfolio.

If, instead, vets, regulators and pet owners decide that care, community, and transparency matter more than exit multiples, these regions could chart a different path.

The animals, as always, won’t get a say.

The rest of us still do.

#bunyipsbooksbeyond