Amid the ongoing tussle with Malaysian sovereign fund Khazanah for the control of healthcare major Parkway, Fortis promoter Shivinder Singh has said the Indian firm is on ‘top of situation’.
“… We are hopefully at the top of the situation here and Fortis is looking for best potential situation and outcome for itself,” Fortis Managing Director Shivinder Singh said during a conference call with analysts on Monday while assuring shareholders that the company would not compromise their interests.
“Fortis will not walk out dented with that proposition,” Singh added.
Meanwhile, the Delhi-headquartered company marginally increased its stake to 25.37 per cent in Singapore-based Parkway Holdings, which had received a higher counter-offer from Malaysian government-owned Khazanah.
Fortis Healthcare picked up 3,50,000 shares, representing a 0.03 per cent stake, from the open market, Parkway said in a filing to the Singapore Exchange on Monday.
Fortis bought the additional stake at an average price of S$3.14 a share, it said.
Earlier, the Singh family-promoted Fortis Healthcare had in March this year acquired a 23.9 per cent stake in the Parkway Holdings for USD 685.3 million (nearly Rs 3,100 crore) from US firm TPG.
With the acquisition, Fortis became the largest shareholder of the Singapore-based hospital chain and along with this, the Indian firm also got management control.
Malvinder Singh, one of the promoters of Fortis, was appointed as the chairman of the Singapore firm.
Last week, Malaysian government-backed fund Khazanah made an USD 843 million open offer to increase its stake in Parkway to 51.1 per cent, thus triggering a take-over battle with Fortis.
Parkway is one of the leading healthcare providers in Asia, with 16 hospitals in various countries including India, China and Malaysia.