Fortis Healthcare's board met on Thursday to consider options after the hospital company became the target of rival takeover bids from companies that include IHH Healthcare, Manipal Health Enterprises, Hero Enterprise and Burman Family Office. The company's board approved the evaluation of binding offers and decided to establish an independent evaluation process for evaluating all binding proposals. For this, the board approved the constitution of an expert advisory committee, to oversee the above mentioned evaluation process and function as an advisor to the Board. (Also Read: Hero Enterprise, Dabur's Burman Raise Bid For Fortis Healthcare)
"The committee is requested to provide a report of its recommendation to the Board, by April 26, 2018, and will be chaired by Deepak Kapoor, former chairman and CEO of Price Waterhouse Coopers. The Board is scheduled to meet on April 26, 2018 to decide the further course of action," the company announced in the stock market filing.
Malaysia's IHH Healthcare Bhd has made a proposed offer for Fortis worth $1.3 billion, while smaller local rival Manipal Health Enterprises, has made an offer of about $1.2 billion. Fortis Healthcare said in a stock exchange filing that its board planned to meet on April 19 to "consider all options."
Besides these, two Indian investors, Sunil Munjal's Hero Enterprise and the Burman Family Office offered to make an investment worth Rs 12,500 rupees ($191.5 million) in Fortis.
On Thursday, Fortis announced to the stock exchange that the Company has availed a secured financing facility upto Rs 160 crore from RattanIndia Finance Private Limited on March 29, 2018 for a tenor of three years for meeting its working Capital requirements and General Corporate Purposes.
(With Reuters inputs)