Morgan Stanley associate buys Parkway shares

Morgan Stanley Asia has informed the Singapore Stock Exchange that one of its UK-based associates, Front Point Management, has purchased 75,000 shares in Parkway Holdings, the company that runs Asia’s largest hospital chain.

Morgan Stanley was appointed independent advisor to the Parkway board on the stake purchase offer made by Malaysian investment firm Khazanah.

The shares were purchased for S$3.83 (Rs 127.89) a share, higher than Khazanah’s offer price of S$3.78 a share. Morgan Stanley stated the shares were purchased by its associate on behalf of a “discretionary investment client”.

The management control of Parkway is currently with India’s Fortis Healthcare, which acquired 23.9 per cent stake in Parkway for S$959 million (around Rs 3,000 crore) in May. The company later increased its stake to 25.3 per cent through open market purchase of shares.

Yesterday, Khazanah had formally informed Parkway shareholders of its intention to acquire 51 per cent stake in Parkway Holdings, by increasing its stake in Parkway from the current 23.32 per cent to 51.5 per cent by purchase of 313 million shares. The offer will close on July 8.

Industry analysts feel Fortis Healthcare, which announced plans to raise over Rs 8,500 crore of funds — Rs 2,750 crore from the security market and up to Rs 6,000 crore as debt — is readying a counter-offer to prevent Khazanah from snatching the management control over Parkway from Fortis.

Parkway shares closed at S$3.85, 0.5 per cent down as compared to the previous day’s close on the Singapore exchange today. The closing share price is still higher than Khazanah’s offer price of S$3.78 a share.

Fortis shares on the Bombay Stock Exchange closed at Rs 151 today, 7.97 per cent higher than the previous close of Rs 139.85 a share.

Parkway Holdings runs 16 hospitals with more than 3,400 beds, in Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, India and China.