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Fortis Healthcare Board To Meet Again On April 27 To Consider Binding Bids

A five-hour meeting of the Fortis board remains inconclusive; to meet again tomorrow.

The logo for Fortis Healthcare India Ltd.’s Renkare dialysis clinic is displayed at the clinic’s reception area in New Delhi, India. (Photographer: Prashanth Vishwanathan/Bloomberg)
The logo for Fortis Healthcare India Ltd.’s Renkare dialysis clinic is displayed at the clinic’s reception area in New Delhi, India. (Photographer: Prashanth Vishwanathan/Bloomberg)

A meeting of Fortis Healthcare Ltd.’s board today remained inconclusive on the binding bids by the likes of Malaysian firm IHH Healthcare, Manipal-TPG consortium, Munjal and Burman family offices and KKR-backed Radiant Life Care, and will be held again tomorrow.

The board met for five hours today but was handicapped by the resignation of Renuka Ramnath from the expert panel formed to evaluate the binding bids and make final recommendations to the board, Fortis said in regulatory filing.

Ramnath, former MD and CEO of ICICI Venture, resigned from the expert committee on April 25.

"Owing to the resignation caused by Renuka Ramnath, one of the esteemed members of the expert advisory committee constituted by the Board of Directors of Fortis Healthcare, the binding bids for the proposed transaction of fund raising and/or re-structuring the company, could not be deliberated upon, at its meeting held yesterday (April 25)," FHL said.

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Accordingly, the board at its meeting held today, decided to adjourn the meeting to be re-convened to April 27, the filing added.

The company's board also extended invitations to Suvalaxmi Chakraborty, Ravi Rajagopal and Indrajit Banerjee to join immediately as additional independent directors and accordingly attend the meeting, subject to their acceptance, Fortis Healthcare said.

Their names have been recommended by National Westminster Bank Plc as Trustee of Jupiter India Fund, East Bridge Capital Master Fund Ltd and East Bridge Capital Master Fund I Ltd, which have an aggregate of 12.04 percent of the paid up capital of the company.

"It was also decided that in the meeting scheduled for tomorrow and in light of the above new appointments, the board shall discuss further board restructuring," Fortis said.

Already, four entities – KKR-backed Radiant Life Care, Malaysian major IHH Healthcare, Manipal/TPG consortium and Munjal and Burman family offices – have given binding offers to the board of FHL.

  • Manipal Health Enterprises again revised its offer for Fortis on April 25, raising the value of the hospitals business to Rs 6,322 crore.
  • KKR-backed Radiant Life Care made a revised bid for Fortis with a binding offer to acquire its Mulund hospital for an enterprise value of Rs 1,200 crore.
  • Malaysian major IHH Healthcare also revised its proposal and made a binding offer to immediately infuse Rs 650 crore in the Indian firm as part of an overall proposal to invest Rs 4,000 crore.
  • Besides, FHL has received a binding offer from Hero Enterprise Investment Office and Burman Family Office. Group entities of Hero Enterprise Investment Office led by Sunil Kant Munjal and the Burman family of the Dabur Group currently hold around 3 percent stake in the healthcare chain.
  • FHL had also received an unsolicited non-binding expression of interest from Fosun Health Holdings, an arm of Fosun International, with a proposal of primary infusion at a price up to Rs 156 per share up to a total investment of $350 million (over Rs 2,295 crore).

The stock of Fortis Healthcare Ltd today closed at Rs 150 per scrip on BSE, down 1.74 percent from its previous close.