Fortis Healthcare and its founders, the Singh family, on Thursday made a $2.3 billion (around Rs 11,000 crore) bid to acquire all the shares in Singapore-based hospital chain Parkway in response to an offer launched by Malaysian fund Khazanah.
The general offer to acquire all the shares of Parkway was made at 3.8 Singapore dollars (SGD) per unit as against the SGD 3.7 per share offer made by Khazanah's arm, International Healthcare Holdings Ltd, in May. Khazanah had made a $835 million partial offer to acquire a 27 per cent additional stake to take its holding in Parkway to 51.5 per cent.
In response, Fortis, which was given time till the end of this month by the Singapore Industries Commission to make a counter-offer, today said it will acquire all the outstanding shares of Parkway.
Fortis, owned by billionaire brothers Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh, already owns a 25.3 per cent stake in Parkway and has a management control. "It is being made at a price of Singapore dollar (SGD 3.8) which is at a 25 per cent premium of Parkway's share price before Khazanah offer, which is subject to conditionality that Fortis is able to get minimum 50 per cent shares," Fortis and Parkway Chairman Malvinder Singh said in conference call from Singapore.
The offer is being made by Royal Bank of Scotland and Macquarie Capital (Singapore) on behalf of RHC Healthcare, in which the Singh family holds a 51 per cent stake and the remaining 49 per cent is owned by Fortis Healthcare.
"We have three weeks to finalise the offer document, which will be around July 22-July 28," Singh added.
He said the company would fund the offer through a mix of debt, equity and cash, without disclosing further details. When asked what Fortis planned to do if it successfully acquired Parkway's outstanding shares, he said: "Fortis and Parkway would become a single listed entity."
"... In terms of opportunities, there is no other vehicle like Parkway-Fortis combined... and going forward we are looking at integrating them as single listed entities," he added.
He, however, did not elaborate where the entity would be listed and which identity would be retained.
On whether Fortis is prepared to meet a counter-offer from Khazanah, Fortis Healthcare Managing Director Shivinder Singh declined to comment, saying, "The matter is too speculative." On delisting of Parkway, he said, "Yes, there is a provision if we can get 100 per cent shares, but we don't know how much shares we would be able to acquire through the offer."
Asked about how much money Fortis would require to complete the offer, Singh said it depends upon the number of shares they are able to garner. Shares of Fortis Healthcare on Thursday closed at Rs 154.10 on the Bombay Stock Exchange, up 1.22 per cent from the previous close.
