By Tanvi Mehta and Suvashree Choudhury
BENGALURU/MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's Fortis Healthcare said on Thursday it had received an investment offer worth 12.5 billion rupees ($191.5 million) from Hero Enterprise Investment Office and the Burman Family Office.
Hero Enterprise is an investment company formed by Sunil Munjal, founder of the country's largest motorcycle maker Hero Group. The Burman Family Office is the private investment arm of the family that owns consumer goods company Dabur India.
Hero Enterprise and Burman, which own stakes in Fortis, said they had together tried unsuccessfully to discuss an acquisition of Fortis last month.
In a letter, the two firms said they were making a new investment offer as they were "concerned" as shareholders about the company's financial health given that it has less than 700 million rupees of cash available.
In the new investment offer, the two firms said they were ready to pay 5 billion rupees in cash before any due diligence, and invest the remaining 7.5 billion rupees after the completion of due diligence within a period of three weeks.
"The proposed infusion of funds not only addresses the immediate liquidity needs of the company, but also addresses the company's long-term growth requirements," Hero Enterprise and Burman said in the joint proposal that Fortis submitted with its regulatory filing.
Earlier in the day, Bloomberg reported that Malaysian investment holding firm IHH Healthcare planned to bid for Fortis Healthcare at a price marginally better than the one put forward by Manipal Hospitals Enterprises Pvt Ltd.
Manipal offered on April 10 to buy Fortis at around 155 rupees per share, or 80.39 billion rupees.
The IHH bid could value the healthcare services giant at as much as $1.3 billion, according to Bloomberg.
IHH, which wants to work with Fortis on a friendly offer, has asked the board for time to update its due diligence before making a formal bid, the report added.
Fortis Chief Executive Bhavdeep Singh said on a call last month that other parties, which he declined to identify, had expressed interest in buying Fortis.
IHH declined to comment on Thursday and Fortis did not respond to a request for comment on the reported IHH offer.
Fortis shares ended up 6 percent at 153.9 rupees.
($1 = 65.2800 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Tanvi Mehta in Bengaluru, additional reporting by Zeba Siddiqui and Liz Lee; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier, Sunil Nair and Dale Hudson)
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