Hong Kong-based brokerage house CLSA has picked up a 7.1% stake in the Chennai-based Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd from the open market. The deal, which was struck on Friday on NSE, would make CLSA the third largest institutional investor in the hospital chain after private equity player Apax Group and Bisikan Investments Ltd. As of quarter ended September 2008, Apax through its two funds under its management – Apax Mauritius FDI One Ltd and Apax Mauritius FII Ltd, is holding 11.70% in Apollo Hospitals, while Bisikan Bayu Investments Mauritius Ltd is holding 12.53% stake in the healthcare provider.
The other major non-promoter stake holders in Apollo Hospitals include Smallcap World Fund Inc (3.69%), Emerging Markets Growth Fund Inc (2.03%), Insurance Series Global Small Capitalisation Fund (1.66%) and Robeco Capital Growth Funds (1.60%). Apollo Sindhuri Capital Investments Ltd, formerly belongs to the Apollo Enterprise Group in which Aditya Birla Group had picked up 56% stake recently, is holding 5.1% stake in the healthcare chain. Promoters of Apollo Hospital Group, the Reddy family, along with their associate entities are holding 31.57% stake in Apollo Hospitals.
In a regulatory filing with the stock exchanges on Friday, Apollo Hospital said that CLSA had bought 42,75,000 shares which translates into 7.1% stake of the voting rights of the hospital chain through open market operations. The deal was struck mainly on the national trading platform of National Stock Exchange. Though the exact price at which the transaction was executed was not immediately known, market sources based on the closing price of the scrip on NSE on Friday estimated that CLSA must have shelled out close to Rs 179.55 crore for the 7.1% stake in the hospital chain.