Wockhardt hospitals to get re-branded as Fortis group

Fortis Healthcare today said Wockhardt's 10 healthcare facilities it has acquired would be rebranded as Fortis Hospitals.

"Eventually, all the hospitals acquired by the Fortis group (from Wockhardt), including those under construction, would be rebranded as Fortis Healthcare Hospitals," Wockhardt Hospitals Group CEO Vishal Bali said.

Earlier in August, Fortis Healthcare acquired 10 hospitals from the Wockhardt for Rs 909 crore, making it the largest buyout deal in the Indian healthcare sector.

Under the deal, Fortis will take over eight operating hospitals and two that are under construction from Wockhardt, adding 1,902 beds to the company's hospital capacity.

As a part of the deal, Fortis had agreed to continue with the existing management, including Wockhardt hospitals CEO Vishal Bali.

Bali said it would take around nine months to complete all transactions and by this time some of the company's greenfield  projects would also get completed.

"Once the transactions and other formalities are completed, these hospitals (acquired from Wockhardt) would get re-branded as Fortis Hospitals," Bali said.

Speaking about the integration with Fortis, he said, "The integration will not be much of a problem as the acquired facilities are in the geographies where Fortis does not have much presence today. So, it is intellectual networking that needs to take place."

When asked about the hospitals that remained with the Wockhardt group, he said that hospitals that will continue to be owned and operated under the Wockhardt brand have a well-functioning management team in place and will continue to do well.