Khazanah consolidates stake in Apollo Hospitals

Integrated (Mauritius) Healthcare Holdings, an arm of Khazanah Nasional Bhd, has acquired 8.82 per cent stake in corporate hospital chain Apollo Hospitals from Bisikan Bayu Investments, another arm of the Malaysian sovereign fund, for Rs 470 crore.

The deal comes eight months after the fund succeeded in aborting attempts of billionaire brothers Malvinder and Shivinder Singh-promoted Fortis Healthcare to acquire a majority stake in Khazanah-controlled Parkway hospital chain of Singapore.

In a notification to the Bombay stock Exchange today, Pratap Reddy-controlled Apollo Hospitals said Integrated (Mauritius) Healthcare Holdings acquired 11,000,000 shares of Apollo Hospitals Enterprises from Bisikan Bayu.

Apollo Hospitals executives told Business Standard that the deal was only an inter-se transfer of shares between two Khazanah subsidiaries. Bisikan Bayu Investments had 12.1 per cent in Apollo as on December 2010, they said.

“It is only an internal arrangement to consolidate shares under a single entity of Khazanah,” said a senior official from Apollo.

Bisikan Bayu had picked up a 13.2 per cent in Apollo Hospitals in August 2005 from TWL Holdings for $44.23 million.