India's largest private hospital chain Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd on Thursday said its promoter Reddy family has offloaded a portion of its stake to pare debt and associated pledges.
The promoter family, represented by Suneeta Reddy, has sold 3.6% stake in the hospital chain through a bulk deal, Apollo Hospitals said in a stock market disclosure. There will be no further dilution of the promoter stake, which now stands at 30.8%, it added.
The financials details of the deal were not disclosed but the promoter family got Rs 729.5 crore at the closing share price of Rs 1,459.1 apiece on the BSE on Thursday.
The company, with the help of this share sale along with net proceeds from its insurance unit Apollo Munich Health Insurance Co Ltd’s stake sale, will be able to trim down its pledge from current 76% to around 20%.
As on 31 March 2019, the firm had a net debt of Rs 3,327.40 crore, as per its annual report.
Earlier in June, HDFC agreed to acquire 50.8% of Apollo Munich for Rs 1,336 crore from Apollo Hospitals Group and 0.4% from a few employees for Rs 10.84 crore. The company is expected to get the proceeds from this transaction by the end of next month.
Apollo Hospitals, which was started by Prathap C Reddy as a single healthcare facility in 1983, said it will continue to focus on the growth across all three verticals -- healthcare services, standalone pharmacies and retail.
Its success across formats has attracted investors, including Singapore government-owned investment firm Temasek, Malaysian sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional Berhad-backed IHH Healthcare and private equity giant KKR.
As on 31 March 2019, Apollo Hospitals had 10,167 beds across 70 hospitals. Its pharmacy outlets stood at 3428 across 20 states and four Union Territories (UT).
Last year, Apollo Hospitals decided to spin off its front-end retail pharmacy business into Apollo Pharmacies Ltd. In the process, a private equity firm and two of India's most well-known investment bankers decided to acquire a majority stake in the retail pharmacy business.
