Apollo Hospitals aims to reduce promoter group pledged shares by 50%

The promoters of Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd (AHEL) aim to being down their shareholding in the business by 50 per cent in four to five months.

The promoters have already released around 10 per cent of their pledge, reducing the share level to 68 per cent of their total shareholding, said Akhileswaran Krishnan, chief financial officer, AHEL.

"It (pedged shares) will come down by 50 per cent in next four to five months, to 36-40 per cent, through liquidation of one of their assets," said Akhileswaran Krishnan, chief financial officer, AHEL. 

AHEL's promoters had earlier pledged almost 74 per cent of their 34 per cent stake in the company--the unwinding being part of a deal with Private Equity player KKR and Co. The promoters will reduce their 50 per cent stake in Apollo Munich Health Insurance Company in 12 months.

"We have planned two liquidity events, which will happen in the next six months," Suneeta Reddy, managing director, AHEL told analysts in the earnings call after its third quarter result announcement a few months back.

The company has several assets in its fold, including a 51 per cent share holding in Apollo Munich Health Insurance. The company also has another liquidity opportunity which it will consider, said Reddy without revealing the details of the second asset. 

The US-based Private Equity player Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) infused around Rs 550 crore in AHEL's holding company PCR Investments in October, 2013. The money was expected to be used to repay promoters' debt and to build hospitals.