Fortis Healthcare Board to "look at all eligible options"

Fortis Healthcare on Monday said that its Board will meet sometime this week to "look at all eligible options" that the company has received.

"The Fortis Board will be meeting this week to look at all eligible options and determine the future course of action that is in the best interests of the company, employees and shareholders," the healthcare major said in a statement.

The development assumes significance as the company on April 14 said that it has received "an unsolicited non-binding expression of interest (EoI)" from IHH Healthcare Berhad for a possible due diligence and participation.

IHH in its letter to the company's Board on April 11, 2018 made an offer of Rs 160 per Fortis share.

On April 12, Hero Enterprise promoted by Sunil Munjal and the Burman family had offered, in a joint letter, to invest Rs 1,250 crore directly in Fortis Healthcare, to bail out the cash-strapped company.

According to Munjal, the fund infusion "will go beyond addressing the urgent liquidity needs of the company and help the operations stabilise with immediate effect".

On March 27, Fortis Healthcare had announced plans to demerge its hospitals business (Fortis Hospitals) into Manipal Hospital Enterprises Private Limited (Manipal Hospitals).

As per a statement then, the company said that the proposed transaction is subject to shareholders' approval, creditors' approval, applicable regulatory approvals (including Competition Commission of India, SEBI, stock exchanges and National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT)) and other customary conditions precedent.

The company's board has also approved the sale of its 20 per cent stake in SRL Ltd to Manipal Hospitals.

"The resultant entity Manipal Hospitals will be a publicly traded company listed on NSE and BSE. The remaining FHL will be an investment holding company with 36.6 per cent stake in SRL," the statement said.

--IANS

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