Friday, May 24th 03:40 AM IST

Fortis in talks with PE players to sell 20% stake: report

Mar 29, 2012

Hospitals chain Fortis Healthcare India Ltd is in talks with private equity firms Carlyle Group and TPG Capital India to sell a 15-20 percent  holding, the Mint reported on Thursday, citing sources close to the development.

Reacting to the news report the stock gained 1. 5 percent on the BSE to trade at Rs 101.55.

The company aims to raise around $250 million through a combination of equity and convertible debt instruments from the PE firms, the newspaper said, adding a deal could happen over the next two weeks.

Malvinder Singh, Chairman of Fortis

A spokeswoman for Fortis told Reuters the report was “baseless”, while a Carlyle spokesman said he had no comment. Officials at TPG Capital could not be immediately reached.

The founders of the Fortis Healthcare, billionaire Singh brothers Malvinder and Shivinder, also plans to sell 6.5% of their stake through a stock auction, the newspaper said.

The hospitals chain is planning to add 600 beds to its capacity of 4,100 beds, its Chief Executive Aditya Vij told Reuters in February.

Reuters

Firstpost encourages open discussion and debate, but please adhere to the rules below, before posting. Comments that are found to be in violation of any one or more of the guidelines will be automatically deleted:

Personal attacks/name calling will not be tolerated. This applies to comments directed at the author, other commenters and other politicians/public figures

Please do not post comments that target a specific community, caste, nationality or religion.

While you do not have to use your real name, any commenters using any Firstpost writer's name will be deleted, and the commenter banned from participating in any future discussions.

Comments will be moderated for abusive and offensive language.

Please read our comments and moderation policy before posting