By Express News Service
NEW DELHI: The bidding race for Fortis Healthcare came to a dramatic end with the board late on Thursday night choosing the offer from Sunil Munjal’s Hero Enterprise and Dabur chairman Anand Burman’s family office.
Notably, the Fortis board turned down the offer from Malaysia-based IHH Healthcare Bhd, which was the highest bidder, as well as competing bids from KKR-backed Radiant group and TPG-backed Manipal Hospitals, which was a strong contender.
The bidding round saw revision of bids by all contestants. The winning bid, too, was sweetened on May 1.
Hero-Burman will infuse `800 crore through a preferential allotment of equity shares at `167 apiece. The group will also put in `1,000 crore through warrants.
Fortis has been looking for buyers for more than a year but legal cases against its founders Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh delayed matters. It was only when the Singh Brothers lost control of the company in March that domestic and international players came forward to bid.
