After selling its entire stake in hospital chain Parkway Holdings for about Rs 3,800 crore, domestic healthcare major Fortis today said it plans to list the firm on the Singapore Stock Exchange.
"Singapore will continue to be our hub for Asian operations and it will be our regional headquarters... We are evaluating listing of Fortis in Singapore," Fortis Healthcare Managing Director Shivinder Singh told reporters here.
Fortis today agreed to sell its 25.37 per cent stake to Malaysia's Khazanah for about Rs 3,800 crore, ending a nearly two-month long battle for control over Parkway. Khazanah had offered to fully acquire Parkway at an increased price of about $2.5 billion.
Singh said Fortis will continue to be listed on the domestic bourses and hence will go for a dual listing (in case of a Singapore listing).
"We plan to have a pan-Asia presence and for that, we will go for the secondary listing. It can be either in the form of REIT or complete listing," Singh said.
He, however, declined to share details such as when the listing will happen and how much stake will be diluted.
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The Singh family-owned Fortis had picked up a 23.9 per cent stake in Parkway for about $685.3 million (nearly Rs 3,100 crore) when it bought TPG Capital's shares in the Singapore-based hospital chain in March this year.
Later, they increased it to a 25.37 per cent holding, comprising 28.27 crore shares at an average share price of SGD 3.54. The total outgo was about Rs 3,450 crore for the Indian firm.
After this transaction is complete, Fortis will get about Rs 3,800 crore and the overall gain from the investment in Parkway will stand at about Rs 350 crore.
"The company will become cash surplus. We will now have a cash surplus of about Rs 900 crore," Fortis Healthcare Chief Financial Officer Yogesh Sareen said.
As of June 30, Fortis had a net debt of about Rs 2,930 crore with a debt-equity ratio of 0.7:1, he added.
When asked if the company will continue to look for acquisitions, Fortis Healthcare Chairman Malvinder Singh: "We will identify other exciting opportunities. We will focus in Middle East, Asia and Indian markets, where we will look for greenfield expansions, management control and acquisitions."
He said during time when the company was involved in the Parkway transactions, it came across many opportunities and the Indian firm will "evaluate" those in due course of time.
"We are passionate, but not obsessed (for acquisitions). For our shareholders, we won't hesitate to do... Whether it is acquisition, divestment or expansion," Singh said.
Shares of Fortis Healthcare were being quoted 3.69 per cent up at Rs 157.45 a piece in late afternoon trade on the Bombay Stock Exchange.