Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 9): IHH Healthcare Bhd has reiterated its commitment to continuing growing its 31%-owned associate Fortis Healthcare Ltd ahead of the hearing tomorrow (Feb 10) at the Supreme Court of India on whether IHH can be allowed to proceed with its open offer to acquire additional shares representing another 26% stake in Fortis.

In a statement yesterday (Feb 8), IHH said it acquired the 31% controlling stake in Fortis in 2018, which triggered a mandatory open offer to acquire another 26% of Fortis shares on the market.

"The open offer has not proceeded due to ongoing legal proceedings with respect to the transaction pending before the Hon'ble (Honourable) Supreme Court where the next hearing is scheduled for Feb 10, 2021,"

"India is the group's (IHH) fourth home market, together with Malaysia, Singapore and Turkey. Between Fortis and IHH's Global Hospitals and Continental Hospitals, the group is a leading private healthcare operator in India with a network of more than 30 hospitals," IHH said.

IHH managing director and chief executive officer Dr Kelvin Loh said in the statement that growing IHH's business in India remains a priority for IHH as the country is one of IHH's four home markets, together with Malaysia, Singapore and Turkey.

Loh said IHH respects and has full faith in the judicial process in India and that the company looks forward to a favourable outcome so that IHH can proceed with the open offer for Fortis.

"This will allow IHH to further invest in Fortis to provide even more support to the Indian healthcare sector, especially in critical times like now with (the) Covid-19 (pandemic).

"Our focus, as the largest shareholder in Fortis, is to bring the best of our knowledge and expertise to help the Fortis leadership with the company's continued turnaround and to deliver even more trusted, quality care for all our patients in India," he said.

According to IHH's statement, Fortis has been facing financial difficulties and IHH has put in place a turnaround plan for Fortis.

Over the past two years, Fortis has progressively strengthened its balance sheet, improved its financial liquidity as well as streamlined its organisational structure to become more efficient, according to IHH.

"This has helped Fortis to remain resilient amid the impact of Covid-19, and to continue to play a critical role in supporting the Indian government in combatting the pandemic.

"For its latest financial results for the third quarter of financial year 2021, Fortis posted a strong recovery from the previous quarter on an accelerated recovery and pickup in business momentum. Its robust performance means it is now positioning for growth and expansion of both of its core businesses — hospitals and diagnostics," IHH said.

At Bursa Malaysia's 12.30pm break today, IHH's share price settled up two sen or 0.39% at RM5.10 for a market capitalisation of about RM44.78 billion.

IHH's latest reported number of issued shares stood at 8.78 billion.

Edited ByChong Jin Hun
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