Fortis revokes 10% of pledged shares

Reduces pledged stake in Fortis Healthcare Ltd to 31 per cent

Fortis Healthcare Holdings Ltd, the promoter company with a majority stake in Fortis Healthcare Ltd, has revoked 39.17 million pledged shares, bringing down the percentage of pledged stake in the company to 31 per cent.

The move comes when Fortis is engaged in a bidding war with the Malaysian government’s investment fund, Khazanah Nasional Berhad, for a controlling stake in Singapore-based Parkway Holdings, the company that runs Asia’s largest hospital chain.

Fortis informed Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) the revocation, representing nearly 10 per cent of all outstanding shares of the company, was done on June 22.

After the transaction, the numbers of pledged shares of Fortis by the promoter group is 125.64 million, 31.02 per cent of all outstanding shares in the healthcare chain, the statement to BSE said.

Before the transaction, the promoters had pledged 38.12 per cent stake of their 76.32 per cent in Fortis.

Last week, Fortis and its promoters made a joint offer to pay up to $2.3 billion (Rs 11,000 crore) to acquire all the shares in Parkway in response to a partial offer launched by Khazanah in May.

Fortis’ offer was made at S$3.8 per share as against the S$3.7 per share offer made by Khazanah's arm, International Healthcare Holdings Ltd.

Fortis, owned by the Singh brothers, Malvinder and Shivinder, currently enjoys management control over Parkway through a 25.3 per cent stake.

Fortis’ shares on BSE closed today at Rs 152.10, down 0.23 per cent from the previous close.