FHL receives new offer from Manipal-TPG, share price hiked to Rs 180
Mumbai, May 14: Fortis Healthcare (FHL) on Monday said that it has received a "modified" new offer from the consortium of Manipal Health Enterprises (MHEPL) and private equity (PE) firm TPG.
As per a BSE filing, FHL said that its Board has received a "modified" new offer from Manipal and TPG with a proposal which values the company at Rs 9,403 crore at a share price of Rs 180 per share.
"We have been following the developments of the past few days after the announcement by FHL and have observed, through media reports, the negative reaction of the FHL shareholders to the decisions of the FHL Board to accept the Hero and Burman offer," Manipal Health Enterprises said in its offer letter.
"The modified new offer is not only financially beneficial for FHL and its stakeholders in the short term but also solves the larger issues facing FHL, including FHL's payment obligation for the acquisition of the relevant Indian entities from RHT and the exit required to be provided by FHL to the private equity investors in SRL."
On May 6, the consortium of MHEPL and TPG revised their offer to acquire a stake in FHL, proposing to infuse Rs 2,100 crore into the company at a share price of Rs 160 per share. That time the consortium had proposed to merge MHEPL into FHL with the latter valued at Rs 8,358 crore.
The development comes days after the FHL Board on May 10 decided to recommend the offer of the Hero and Burman family consortium for sale of its business to the shareholders for their approval later this month.
Fortis Director Brian Tempest on May 11 had said: "The Board, by a majority, decided to recommend the Hero-Burman family offer to shareholders looking at the binding bids for the point of certainty of liquidity flowing into the company."
The company said that the entire exercise for selecting the Hero and Burman consortium involved a process that witnessed "deliberation and recommendation" by an independent Expert Advisory Committee (EAC).
The EAC comprised Deepak Kapoor, former Chairman of PWC (India), and Lalit Bhasin, Chairman of the Indian Society of Law Firms, along with two financial advisors -- Standard Chartered Bank and Arpwood Capital -- while Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas were the legal advisors.
The deal envisages an upfront equity infusion of Rs 800 crore at a price of Rs 167 per share through preferential allotment. The Munjal-Burman consortium has also offered a further amount of Rs 1,000 crore through preferential issue of warrants.
"There will be a shareholders' EGM on this on May 22 and I am positive that there will be support from the shareholders for the decision," he said on May 11.
Fortis' board had received offers from suitors such as Hero Enterprise Investment Office, Burman Family Office, Fosun Health Holdings, Malaysia's IHH Healthcare Berhad, Manipal Hospital Enterprises and Radiant Life Care for infusion of funds. The bid winners' offer was not the highest.
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NATO, others turn down US call for help in Hormuz: Trump
Washington (PTI): President Donald Trump on Tuesday said NATO and most of US' other allies have rejected his calls to help secure the Strait of Hormuz as the war with Iran entered the third week.
In a social media post, Trump asserted that Iran’s military has been “decimated” and he no longer felt the need for assistance from NATO countries or anyone else.
Last week, Trump had sought help from European nations and others who depend on oil supplies transiting from the Hormuz Strait to safeguard the critical waterway.
“The United States has been informed by most of our NATO “Allies” that they don’t want to get involved with our Military Operation against the Terrorist Regime of Iran, in the Middle East, this, despite the fact that almost every Country strongly agreed with what we are doing, and that Iran cannot, in any way, shape, or form, be allowed to have a Nuclear Weapon,” the US President said in a post on Truth Social.
Iran's attacks on Gulf nations and its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil is transported, have sparked increasing concerns of a global energy crisis and are unnerving the world economy.
“I am not surprised by their action, however, because I always considered NATO, where we spend Hundreds of Billions of Dollars per year protecting these same Countries, to be a one-way street — We will protect them, but they will do nothing for us, in particular, in a time of need,” Trump said.
He said Australia, Japan and South Korea too have turned down his call for help.
“Fortunately, we have decimated Iran’s Military – Their Navy is gone, their Air Force is gone, their Anti-Aircraft and Radar is gone and perhaps, most importantly, their Leaders, at virtually every level, are gone, never to threaten us, our Middle Eastern Allies, or the World, again,” Trump said.
He said that given the scale of recent military successes, the US no longer "need" or desires assistance from NATO countries, adding that it never relied on such support in the first place.
Speaking as President of the United States, the "most powerful" country in the world, "we do not need" help from anyone, Trump said.
The West Asia conflict began on February 28 when the US-Israeli combine conducted airstrikes on Iran.
The Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the open ocean, has effectively been shut following the US and Israel attack on Iran and Tehran's sweeping retaliation.
However, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had said that from Tehran's "perspective", the strait is "open". "It is only closed to Iran's enemies, to those who carried out unjust aggression against our country and to their allies.”
Earlier in the day, a second Indian-flagged LPG tanker, Nanda Devi, reached the country after safely sailing from the war-hit Strait of Hormuz. On Monday, the first ship, Shivalik, reached Mundra port in Gujarat.
As of now, 22 Indian vessels remain on the west side and two on the east side of the strait.
Indian authorities are in constant touch with all the relevant stakeholders in the region to secure the safe passage of the remaining ships, officials said.
