Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (July 3): IHH Healthcare Bhd, a unit of sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd, has submitted a new binding offer to the board of directors of Fortis Healthcare Ltd to acquire the struggling Indian hospital chain and its affiliates.

Fortis had on May 29 initiated a fresh bidding process and invited selected bidders, including IHH, to submit fresh proposals. As such, the latest proposal supersedes and replaces the earlier ones by IHH.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, IHH said it has today issued the offer letter to Fortis' board, which represents its only binding offer.

The group, however, did not provide any details about the size of its offer this time.

"Legal obligations and agreement between IHH and Fortis will be created only after the board of Fortis approves the preferential allotment in terms of the share subscription agreement to be executed between Fortis and IHH or the nominee of IHH," the filing added.

Fortis’ board has until July 16 to respond on the new offer, after which the offer will be deemed to have been withdrawn.

"IHH will make appropriate announcement(s) to Bursa in a timely manner, should there be any further material development on this matter," the group said, adding shareholders of IHH are advised to exercise caution and seek appropriate independent advice when dealing in its shares.

Earlier in April, IHH had offered to buy Fortis at INR160 or RM9.42 per share, equivalent to a deal worth INR4,000 crore or RM2.35 billion.

Later the same month, IHH sweetened its offer by upping its offer price to INR175 or RM10.31 per share.

However, in May, Fortis’ board of directors recommended the group to take up the offer from the Hero Enterprise Investment Office and Burman Family Office.

Subsequently, IHH made two extensions for Fortis to consider the former’s offer until June 30.

IHH shares closed unchanged at RM6 today, with 3.54 million shares done, giving it a market capitalisation of RM49.47 billion.

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