Mumbai, April 23: Fortis Healthcare on Monday said Hero Enterprise Investment Office and the Burman Family Office have extended the validity of their 'improved binding offer' till May 4, 2018.

According to a BSE filing, "all other terms and conditions of the improved offer remain unchanged".

On April 19, Sunil Kant Munjal of Hero Enterprise as well as Anand Burman and Mohit Burman of the Burman family approached the Board of Fortis Healthcare with a binding offer to invest Rs 1,500 crore directly in the company.

The 'improved binding offer' replaced their original offer made to the Board on April 12, 2018 to invest Rs 1,250 crore directly in Fortis Healthcare.

The development comes days after Fortis Healthcare disclosed that it has received "an unsolicited non-binding expression of interest (EoI)" from KKR-backed Radiant Life Care with "a proposal for making investment and or re-structuring the company subject to certain conditions as mentioned in the offer letter".

As per an earlier BSE filing, Radiant Life Care has made an offer to buy a 26 per cent stake in the company at a price of Rs 126 per share, excluding the SRL Diagnostics' business.

Fortis Healthcare had earlier revealed that it has received a "supplemental proposal" from IHH Healthcare Berhad.

Besides IHH, Fortis Healthcare has received "an unsolicited non-binding expression of interest (EoI)" from Fosun Health Holdings for a possible due diligence.

Fosun Health Holdings has made an offer of a "primary infusion at a price up to Rs 156 per share, subject to due diligence to be completed within three weeks, up to a total investment of $350 million" including a preliminary investment of up to Rs 100 crore.

However, Fortis Healthcare on March 27 had announced plans to demerge its hospitals business (Fortis Hospitals) into Manipal Hospital Enterprises Private Ltd (Manipal Hospitals).

The plan envisages the sale of the company's 20 per cent stake in SRL Ltd to Manipal Hospitals.

On last Thursday, Fortis Healthcare decided to constitute an "expert advisory committee" to evaluate all binding proposals for fund infusion. The panel is led by Deepak Kapoor, Former Chairman and CEO of Price Waterhouse Coopers, India and has been "requested to provide a report of its recommendation to the Board, by April 26, 2018".

The company has named Renuka Ramnath and Lalit Bhasin as members of an "expert advisory committee". Ramnath is a former MD and CEO of ICICI Venture and Bhasin, President, Society of Indian Law Firms and Managing Partner, Bhasin & Co.

The panel is likely to meet by April 25 to decide on the merger or buy offers.

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Bengaluru, Mar 6 (PTI): The Karnataka Assembly on Thursday passed the Bangalore Palace (Utilisation and Regulation of Land) Bill, reaffirming state ownership over 472 acres and 16 guntas of land here, amid protests by the opposition BJP.

During the discussion, Karnataka Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister H K Patil said the state government would have to provide Rs 200 crore worth of Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) for each acre of land, which means that for 15 acres, Rs 3,000 crore worth of TDR would be issued.

“If we accept it, then this 2-km stretch of road will become the costliest road in the world. If we accept it then how are we going to develop the city in later stages? How will you carry out development works?” asked Patil.

He also pointed out that this question was raised not only under the Congress government but also during the previous BJP regime.

However, the BJP-led cabinet has opposed the project.

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“Suppose we agree to it then, what will be the valuation of the 472 acres? It will be lakhs and lakhs of crores of rupees. Can we accept?” Patil wondered.

The Minister said the government had previously exercised its executive powers to issue an ordinance, which was approved by the Governor. Now the government is bringing a bill with two amendments.

“In this bill, we have made provisions either to develop or drop the road development work,” Patil explained.

However, BJP state president B Y Vijayendra and BJP MLA Arvind Bellad opposed the move, alleging that the government was targetting Yaduveer Krishna Datta Chamaraja Wadiyar, the scion of the Mysuru royal family, and the BJP MP from Mysuru-Kodagu constituency out of political vendetta.
“We talk of 472 acres of Mysuru Maharaja but here there are many Maharajas who too own 400 acres, 500 acres and thousands of acres of land, which is known to everyone,” Bellad said.

He slammed the Congress government, saying political power should not be misused for personal vendetta.

“Why (the then Deputy Chief Minister) Siddaramaiah brought the law in 1996 pertaining to the Bangalore Palace? Why are you setting eyes on the Bangalore Palace?” he asked.

Vijayendra charged that Wadiyar won the election on BJP ticket so the state government realised that it should acquire it.

“This bill has been brought for political vengeance. We are not discussing whether Rs 3,000 crore is exorbitant or not but the moment Yaduveer became MP, the state government woke up. You should be ashamed. This house should not be used for political vendetta,” he said.

Intervening, Minister Priyank Kharge said Vijayendra should not have raised it because the intention behind building the road was noble.

According to him, the BJP too had the same plan when it was in power.

He sought to know whether thousands of crores of rupees be spent on a road which should have cost significantly less.

In response, BJP MLA B A Basavaraj (Byrathi) said issuing TDR will not be a burden on the state government and appealed to the ruling Congress to reconsider its stance.

Minister Ramalinga Reddy too explained that the Karnataka government acquired the entire land way back in 1996.

The Mysuru royal family went to the High Court, which gave ruling in favour of the state government. The royal family then approached the Supreme Court, where the case is still going on, the Minister pointed out.

“The final judgment is pending in the SC to decide whether the acquisition was right or wrong. If the SC says it’s the royal family’s property then let it be so. If the order is in the state government’s favour then we can take a decision. The bill is only about it,” Reddy explained.

Speaker U T Khader then called for a voice vote and the bill was passed by the Assembly amidst opposition BJP’s discontent.

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