Munjals, Burmans Give Consent For Re-Opening Bidding Process For Fortis

The Munjal and the Burman family offices have given their consent to re-open bidding for Fortis Healthcare Ltd., after a revamp of the hospital chain operator’s board.

The Hero Enterprise Investment Office of Sunil Kant Munjal and the Burman Family Office, who had won the backing of Fortis’ board, said some shareholders of the hospital chain operator might be in favor of another round of bidding.

“While we continue to be of the firm belief that our offer is the best offer received by the company till date, we believe that this situation may have arisen largely on account of the lack of information available to the stakeholders,” Munjals and Burmans said in a letter to the Fortis board, according to an exchange filing.

This decision comes after three independent directors on Fortis’ board resigned, and another -- Brian Tempest -- was voted out by shareholders in an extraordinary general meeting. All four board members had earlier voted in favour of the offer by the Munjals and Burmans.

Apart from the Munjal-Burman combine, TPG-backed Manipal Health Enterprises Pvt Ltd., Malaysia’s IHH Healthcare Bhd., KKR-backed Radiant Life Care Pvt Ltd., and China’s Fosun Group have bid for Fortis. Manipal and IHH have extended the validity of their offers in the wake of the board changes.

The board revamp was a “vote against the process that’s been followed, as well as the decision to go with the Munjal-Burman offer [for the hospital chain],” Amit Tandon, managing director of corporate governance and proxy advisory firm IiAS, had earlier told BloombergQuint.

The Munjal-Burman combine said they would be interested in participating in the renewed bidding process. “Needless to say, we expect that any such process will be run in a fair and transparent manner, with full clarity to all stakeholders and bidders.”