Mumbai: Even as IHH Healthcare and Manipal Hospitals Enterprises Pvt. Ltd are battling for control of Fortis Healthcare Ltd’s hospital assets, two of Fortis’s investors have offered to infuse Rs1,250 crore into the hospital operator.
Sunil Munjal, Anand Burman and Mohit Burman have jointly proposed to invest a total of Rs1,250 crore—Rs500 crore upfront and the balance Rs750 crore over a period of time—to meet the immediate cash requirements of Fortis and help stabilize its operations.
The offer involves one seat on Fortis’ board following infusion of Rs500 crore and commensurate representation after the infusion of Rs750 crore.
Munjal is the chairman of Hero Enterprise, Anand Burman is the chairman of Dabur Group and Mohit Burman is managing director of Elephant Capital LLP and also serves as a director on Dabur’s board.
Currently, Munjal and Burmans own about 3% in Fortis, according to Munjal. If their offer is accepted by the board, their combined shareholding is likely to be around 10%, he said.
The offer comes at a time when the TPG Capital-Manipal Hospitals combine has tabled a revised offer to woo Fortis investors, giving them a higher valuation and greater participation in Fortis after the transaction as against its initial offer made on 27 March.
IHH has also submitted a “non-binding” offer to acquire the hospital assets, offering a marginally higher valuation albeit with several riders, said two people close to the development. A spokesperson for IHH declined to comment on the non-binding offer.
“(The funds to be infused) will go beyond addressing the urgent liquidity needs of the company and help the operations stabilize with immediate effect,” said Munjal.
In March, the Manipal-TPG combine had announced the signing of a definitive agreement with Fortis to acquire its hospital assets in a multi-step transaction. Fortis shareholders, however, had raised concerns over the deal structure and valuation.
On 10 April, Manipal put out a revised offer accommodating shareholder requests by offering over 21% higher valuation and a suitable deal structure.
According to the plan submitted by the Munjal and Burmans, “the offer does not envisage any changes in the current structure, operations and assets of the company and is simple and is almost immediately implementable”.
Even as Fortis is grappling with legal hurdles and debt woes, the potential suitors are lining up again after several failed negotiations last year. While IHH has offered a slight premium over Manipal’s offer, the bid submitted is non-binding, which is likely to give an upper hand to the Manipal-TPG combine.
“Manipal has taken a conservative yet realistic view on valuation for Fortis. Binding and non-binding is the key differentiator here. Considering the investigation report by Luthra and Luthra is pending and Serious Fraud Investigation Office is still investigating, upfront cash deal is not justified,” said a person close to the development. Moreover, offering cash can lead to a liquidity trap in the future in case there are risks which are still unassessed and may emerge after the reports come in, he added.
TPG Capital and Manipal Hospital spokespersons declined to comment.