Fortis Healthcare Ltd has scrapped a plan to sell its stake in Singapore-listed RHT Health Trust and its manager RHT Health Trust Manager Pte. Ltd after failing to find a buyer.
The Indian hospital chain, controlled by Malaysia's IHH Healthcare Berhad, and units Fortis Healthcare International Ltd as well as Stellant Capital Advisory Services Pvt. Ltd had started preliminary discussions to sell their stake in RHT Health in April.
However, Fortis and its units didn't receive any firm proposal which was commercially viable and they didn't sign any agreement for the planned sale.
"Since the above process to explore the potential transaction was inconclusive, it was decided to close the bidding and search process," Fortis said in a stock-exchange filing.
Fortis Healthcare International owns 27.82% in RHT Trust and the trustee manager owns another 2.68%. The trustee-manager, in turn, is a wholly owned unit of Stellant.
In January, Fortis Healthcare had completed the acquisition of Indian clinics and hospitals held by RHT Health Trust after earlier missing the deadline twice. The overall deal value was around Rs 4,666 crore. Originally, in November 2017, Fortis had said it planned to purchase RHT Health’s assets for Rs 4,650 crore, including debt of Rs 1,152 crore.
RHT Health had listed its units on the Singapore Exchange in 2012 after raising 510.7 million Singapore dollars ($419 million then) through an initial public offering. This was the largest IPO of a business trust sponsored by an Indian company in Singapore and the second-largest primary listing in the island city-state that year.
In July last year, Fortis had accepted a proposal from IHH Healthcare to inject as much as Rs 7,300 crore ($1.06 billion then) into the Indian hospital chain, making it the largest investment in the South Asian nation's healthcare sector. The Indian company chose IHH after a months-long bidding war that attracted four other suitors.
To discuss the emerging opportunities and challenges in dealmaking, Mosaic Digital, the corporate banner behind VCCircle.com, is organising its next edition of M&A Summit on 26 June in Mumbai.