Fortis Healthcare Ltd, acquired by Malaysia's IHH Healthcare Berhad two years ago, said it has received an in-principle approval to rebrand itself as Parkway.
The rebranding decision was taken to disassociate the company from its erstwhile promoters, said Fortis in a stock market disclosure.
Also, the current brand licence agreement expires by May next year, it added. The Parkway brand belongs to IHH.
IHH's India exposure goes back to 2002 through a partnership between its brand Parkway and Apollo Hospitals, India’s largest hospital chain.
Fortis said that research showed a more positive response and preference for the Parkway brand as compared to a neutral brand or any other brand of IHH.
The Indian company will obtain a licence to use the brand Parkway as the corporate name, brand and logo of the firm and all its subsidiaries.
This will exclude its diagnostics unit SRL and its subsidiaries. SRL may have a neutral brand and logo unrelated to Fortis and IHH.
Earlier this month, Fortis appointed Anand K as the new chief executive officer of SRL. Prior to joining SRL, Anand was based in Hyderabad leading the diagnostics business of rival Apollo Health and Lifestyle Ltd.
Fortis promoters and brothers Malvinder and Shivinder Mohan Singh allegedly concealed facts at the time of their stake sale in pharmaceutical firm Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd to Daiichi in 2008.
They have been entangled in a legal battle for this and have sold a slew of their businesses under their flagship financial services firm Religare Enterprises Ltd.
The legal tussle with Daiichi had also put the Singh brothers' plan to sell their stake in Fortis in limbo.
In May 2020, the Singh brothers' legal hope to dodge the payment of Rs 3,500 crore ($550 milion) as arbitral award to Daiichi was quashed.
