Fortis Healthcare today said it would use a short-term loan and money raised through a recent rights issue to fund its 23.9 per cent stake buy in Singapore’s Parkway Holdings from private equity firm TPG Capital for $685 million.
Fortis Healthcare Managing Director Shivinder Mohan Singh said the company plans to fund the deal through the Rs 200 crore cash remaining out of the rights issue made last year and fresh issue of equities and currency bonds.
“In the interim course, we will do a bridge financing through debt,” he said, adding that the company had tied up the debt and would close the Parkway deal next week.
Last month, the Fortis board approved its plan to raise Rs 1,250 crore via equity or FCCBs (foreign currency convertible bonds) to finance its growth requirements. The board also gave in-principle approval to enhance its borrowing limits to Rs 3,000 crore from Rs 1,500 crore.
Fortis will buy the entire stake of private equity fund TPG and also take four seats on the board of Parkway. This is the biggest acquisition by the Singh family after it sold its stake in Ranbaxy to Japan’s Daiichi Sankyo in June 2008 for $4.6 billion (Rs 20,934 crore).
Global footprint
The Parkway stake buy is Fortis’ first step towards becoming a leading global healthcare provider, said Malvinder Mohan Singh and Shivinder Mohan Singh, the promoters of the domestic hospital chain.
The combined entity will become the largest hospital chain of the continent, with 64 hospitals and over 10,000 beds across eight countries.
The Singhs said their first step was to have a pan-India presence, which they managed through organic and inorganic growth.