Ending the nearly two-month old corporate takeover battle for acquiring a controlling stake in Singapore-based healthcare chain Parkway, Malvinder and Shivinder Singh on Monday accepted the offer of the Malaysian government’s investment fund Khazanah to buy Fortis? 25% stake in Parkway at Singapore $3.95 per share. Following the stake sale the brothers said they will scout for smaller assets across Asia. Malvinder Singh, chairman, Fortis, spoke on the company’s plans hereafter. Excerpts:
Following your exit from Parkway would you now look to focus more on India?
Our focus from India was never diluted in the first place. Our team lead by Shivinder has always been exploring new business opportunities in India and we will continue to do so. Under Fortis International, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fortis Healthcare, we would be looking at smaller assets across Asia mainly in the West Asia, China and Hong Kong region, South East Asia and around the Indian sub-continent. We will be constantly looking to raise capital for that.
Can you throw some light on what triggered the stake sale from the side of Fortis?
One needs to be rational when it comes to value creation and you also need to be objective and put a value to the assets. We are in the business to create value and be responsible to our shareholders. At the end of the day the deal talks about the two sides agreeing upon a certain price and working towards it to make it a win-win outcome for both.
Was the S$3.95 Khazanah offer agreed upon by both sides?
It was a joint agreed price between Fortis and Khazanah that at this price we will give our shares to them. It was an agreement between two parties.
In future are you open to working with Khazanah?
I am very open to the idea of working with Parkway or Khazanah or anybody till it strategically meets our needs and theirs.
Up to what point were you looking to remain in the race for Parkway?
We do not enter a business to trigger a bidding war. All I can say is that our counter offer at S$3.80 per share was a bit of a stress by itself.
Following the stake sale what kind of an impact will it have on the company’s debt-equity ratio?
As on June 30 our debt-equity ratio was 0.7 to 1. After today’s announcement we will become a zero debt company. This will put us in a strong cash position.
What plans does Fortis have for getting itself listed in the Singapore stock exchange? And what has prompted you in taking this step?
We decided to get listed only on Thursday and since then there has been not much progress on that front. At this stage all I can say is that we have already discussed with the Singapore Stock exchange. But the nitty grities of it are yet to be looked at. We decided on Singapore because we wanted to make it our hub for the international operations.