Radiant Life Care back in race for Fortis

Board appoints Ravi Rajagopal as chairman.

Ravi Rajagopal, non-executive independent director, has been appointed the chairman of Fortis Healthcare Ltd.

His appointment has been cleared by the board.

His appointment takes into effect immediately.

In the meanwhile, Radiant Life Care, backed by private equity firm KKR, has submitted an expression of interest (EoI) for Fortis Healthcare, re-joining the race to acquire stake in the hospital chain.

Fortis has already requested Manipal-TPG, IHH and Munjal-Burman combine, earlier suitors for the asset, to participate in the fresh bidding process.

The Fortis board will now have four bidders to choose from.

In a filing with the BSE, Fortis said that ``the company has received interest from various parties on May 31 as per the timeline specified in the invitation for transaction participation''.

The board of the company, it said, had now decided to include Hero Enterprise Investment Office-Burman Family Office combine, IHH Healthcare Berhand, Radiant Life Care Private Limited, TPG Asia VI SF Pte Ltd.-Manipal Health Enterprises Private Limited consortium in the process, and had initiated various steps as outlined in the transaction process letter.

The Fortis board, it may be recalled, was reconstituted following the resignation of three of its older members and the removal of a fourth one. And, it began a fresh bidding process for a deal on May 29.

Fortis went in for a fresh bidding process after it got a consent from Munjal-Burman consortium, whose offer was accepted by the board on May 10.

As part of the new process, bidders will get 10 days time to conduct financial and legal due diligence.

Unconditional binding bids for the company following due diligence will have to be submitted between 8:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. on June 14.

The company will evaluate binding bids that offer a minimum infusion of ₹ 1,500 crore through a preferential allotment and a plan to fund the company’s acquisition of RHT Health Trust assets. Further, the company said that the binding offers should provide an exit to private equity investors in SRL, the diagnostic arm of Fortis.