Parkway shareholders vote in favour of Malaysian fund's bid

Malaysia's Integrated Healthcare Holdings Ltd today said 70 per cent eligible shareholders of Singapore-based hospital group Parkway have voted in favour of its takeover offer, dealing a blow to the acquisition bid of India's Fortis Healthcare.

In a notice to the Singapore Stock Exchange, Integrated Healthcare Holdings Ltd (IHHL) its partial offer received 604,926,786 valid votes, representing 70 per cent of eligible shareholders. However, only 5 per cent of the shareholders have tendered their acceptances so far.

IHHL, which is an arm of Malaysia's sovereign fund Khazanah, launched a $835 billion partial offer for 51.5 per cent Parkway stake at SGD 3.78 per share. India's Fortis had launched a $2.3 billion dollars counter offer at Singapore dollars 3.8 per share to fully acquire Parkway.

"As on July 20, IHHL has received an aggregate of 604,926,786 valid votes from offer shareholders on the partial offer," the notice said.

The shares amount to 70 per cent of the total number of shares which are eligible to vote on the partial offer, the notice added.

"In addition, 15,661,986 shares have been tendered as acceptances, representing approximately 5 per cent of the 313,000,000 offer shares," it added.

Commenting on the development, IHHL Director Quek Pei Lynn said: "We are very pleased that the majority of Parkway shareholders who have voted to date have chosen to approve our Partial Offer."

The success of IHHL's partial offer will, however, be subject to its a approval by shareholders representing more than 50 per cent of the votes received, not considering its own vote; and also on valid acceptances for no less than 313,000,000 shares.

The partial offer is to close on July 26 or such later date(s) as may be announced from time to time by or on behalf of the offeror, the notice said.

On the other hand Fortis' open offer is scheduled to close on August 12.

Currently, Fortis owns 25.37 per cent of Parkway, while IHHL has 23.32 per cent stake.