Fortis Healthcare to form takeover evaluation panel

(Reuters) - Indian hospital operator Fortis Healthcare will set up an advisory committee to evaluate takeover proposals, it said on Thursday, as suitors hover around the cash-strapped company.

Fortis has become the target of a takeover battle with Malaysia's IHH Healthcare, local rival Manipal Health Enterprises, a consortium of Hero Enterprise Investment Office and Burman Family Office, and China's Fosun International.

The interest comes against the backdrop of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's plans to implement a healthcare programme aimed at providing insurance cover to about half of India's population.

The committee, which will be chaired by PricewaterhouseCoopers India's former chairman and CEO Deepak Kapoor, will oversee the evaluation process and give its recommendation to the board in a meeting on April 26, Fortis said in a statement.

Fortis runs about 30 hospitals in India, having grown rapidly on rising demand created by a stretched public healthcare system.

Lately, however, it has struggled with insufficient cash and increased debt, while regulators investigate allegations that its founders took funds without board approval. The founders, who have since left the company, deny wrongdoing.

Standard Chartered Bank, financial adviser to Fortis, will assist the advisory committee and the board, Fortis said.

(Reporting Krishna V Kurup in Bengaluru; Editing by Biju Dwarakanath and David Goodman)