Brothers Malvinder and Shivinder Singh plan to make Fortis Healthcare a subsidiary of Parkways once the company successfully acquires Singapore-based Parkways Holdings.
On Thursday, Fortis Healthcare Ltd, which is in a takeover battle with Malaysia's sovereign investor Khazanah Nasional Bhd to acquire Singapore-based Parkway Holdings Ltd, made a counter offer at SGD 3.80/ share ($2.71) of Parkway Holdings.
In a conference call on Thursday, Malvinder Mohan Singh, chairman of Fortis, said, “We plan to bring our healthcare entities under the umbrella of Parkway, once we acquire the hospital chain group.” Though he said the buyout will be done through a combination of debt, equity and cash, he did not elaborate further.
“It is too early to say about financing. We have to make it clear first the number of shares to be tendered.” The combined entity will have a market capitalization of $4.7-$5 billion, he added.
Fortis, which owns 25.3% in hospital operator Parkway, made a counter offer against Khazanah Nasional Bhd's SGD 3.78 ($2.7) per piece offer through RHC Healthcare Pte Ltd, a company jointly owned by RHC Holding Private Limited, the holding company of Malvinder Mohan Singh and Shivinder Mohan Singh, and Fortis Healthcare Limited.
Fortis, through RHC is making a counter-offer to Khazanah Nasional Bhd's SGD 1.18 billion partial takeover offer made on May 27, aiming to buy 313 million shares, each priced at SGD 3.78. Khazanah wants to hike its shareholding to 51.5% up from 24% currently. In March this year, Fortis Healthcare paid $685 million to acquire TPG's 23.9% stake along with management duties of the hospital chain with presence in China, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore.
Malvinder Singh said, “Through the combined entity, we can create an un-paralleled platform to tap the healthcare growth in Asia. Singapore-based Parkway can attract the increasing medical tourism needs by adding the Fortis’ strength in infrastructure and financial capabilities. Parkway has presence across the Asian countries, whether strong or weak. But through joining hands with Fortis, the pan-Asia presence can be strengthened for each partner.”
Currently, the Fortis network has over 12,000 bed capacity across 68 hospitals in seven countries. It has 20,000 employees and 3,500 doctors.
Shivinder Mohan Singh, Managing Director, Fortis, said, “The combination of Fortis and Parkways can leverage much wider platform and leverage Fortis’ talent pool internationally.” He declined to answer to the question on whether Fortis would be de-listed once the deal with Parkways is concluded.
