IHH extends validity of its "Enhanced Revised offer" for Fortis

Fortis Healthcare (FHL) on Thursday said that Malaysia's IHH Healthcare Berhad has extended the validity of its "Enhanced Revised Offer" to invest in the company.

As per a BSE filing, FHL said that its Board has received a letter from IHH for extending the acceptance period for its offer to May 29 from the earlier date of May 15. IHH has proposed to invest directly into the company at Rs 175 per share cost.

"We emphasise that we remain strongly committed to participate in Fortis and are therefore very keen to understand the next step that the Board is considering in the wake o the modified Manipal offer," IHH Healthcare Berhad's Managing Director and Group CEO Tan See Leng said in the letter to the Fortis Board.

"If there is indeed a new bid process that the Board is proposing to initiate we would like to participate in such a process..."

The development comes just a few days after FHL received a "modified" new offer from the consortium of Manipal Health Enterprises (MHEPL) and private equity (PE) firm TPG which pegged the company's value at Rs 9,403 crore at a share price of Rs 180 per share.

"We have been following the developments of the past few days after the announcement by FHL and have observed, through media reports, the negative reaction of the FHL shareholders to the decisions of the FHL Board to accept the Hero and Burman offer," Manipal Health Enterprises said in its offer letter.

"The modified new offer is not only financially beneficial for FHL and its stakeholders in the short term but also solves the larger issues facing FHL, including FHL's payment obligation for the acquisition of the relevant Indian entities from RHT and the exit required to be provided by FHL to the private equity investors in SRL."

Earlier, the consortium of MHEPL and TPG on May 6 had revised their offer to acquire a stake in FHL, proposing to infuse Rs 2,100 crore into the company at a share price of Rs 160 per share. That time the consortium had proposed to merge MHEPL into FHL with the latter valued at Rs 8,358 crore.

On May 10, the FHL Board had decided to recommend the offer of the Hero and Burman family consortium for sale of its business to the shareholders for their approval later this month.

Fortis Director Brian Tempest on May 11 had said: "The Board, by a majority, decided to recommend the Hero-Burman family offer to shareholders looking at the binding bids for the point of certainty of liquidity flowing into the company."

The company said that the entire exercise for selecting the Hero and Burman consortium involved a process that witnessed "deliberation and recommendation" by an independent Expert Advisory Committee (EAC).

The EAC comprised Deepak Kapoor, former Chairman of PWC (India), and Lalit Bhasin, Chairman of the Indian Society of Law Firms, along with two financial advisors -- Standard Chartered Bank and Arpwood Capital -- while Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas were the legal advisors.

The deal envisages an upfront equity infusion of Rs 800 crore at a price of Rs 167 per share through preferential allotment. The Munjal-Burman consortium has also offered a further amount of Rs 1,000 crore through preferential issue of warrants.

"There will be a shareholders' EGM on this on May 22 and I am positive that there will be support from the shareholders for the decision," he said on May 11.

Fortis' board had received offers from suitors such as Hero Enterprise Investment Office, Burman Family Office, Fosun Health Holdings, Malaysia's IHH Healthcare Berhad, Manipal Hospital Enterprises and Radiant Life Care for infusion of funds. The bid winners' offer was not the highest.

--IANS

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