IHH plans to rebrand Fortis as ‘Parkway’ to distance firm from Singh brothers
2 min read . Updated: 14 Aug 2020, 04:45 PM IST- Fortis Healthcare board has given an in-principal approval to IHH's proposal to rebrand its hospital business
Home >Companies >News >IHH plans to rebrand Fortis as ‘Parkway’ to distance firm from Singh brothers
New Delhi: The board of Fortis Healthcare Ltd on Friday gave an in-principal approval to its Malaysia-based promoter IHH Healthcare Berhad’s proposal to rebrand its hospital business as "Parkway" as well as its SRL diagnostics business under a neutral name, continuing an over two-year effort to distance itself from its embattled former owners, Malvinder and Shivinder Singh.
“This is the culmination of the extensive overhaul and strengthening of the governance processes initiated by the reconstituted board in 2018, and is a reinforcement of our efforts to completely disassociate ourselves from the erstwhile promoters of the company," Fortis Healthcare chairman Ravi Rajagopal said.
Under the rebranding exercise, Fortis Healthcare plans to obtain a license to use the brand "Parkway" as the corporate name, brand and logo of the company and all its subsidiaries in relation to the hospital business. The rebranding to "Parkway" would exclude SRL Ltd and its subsidiaries and joint ventures. The rebranding exercise will lead to discontinuation of "Fortis", "La Femme" and "SRL" brands by the company.
As part of the plan, SRL Ltd would develop a new neutral brand name, brand and logo, which would be unrelated to the IHH Group and the Fortis brand, for use in the diagnostics business.
The rebranding exercise is subject to requisite approvals and directions from the Supreme Court and receipt of all requisite corporate and other approvals as may be required, the company said.
The "Parkway" brand is owned by IHH Healthcare, a group which operates more than 15,000 licensed beds across 78 hospitals in 10 countries worldwide and is Asia’s largest integrated private healthcare provider.
While in India the group does not run hospitals under the "Parkway" brand, there are three in Singapore. Apart from the over two dozen hospitals under Fortis, IHH also runs five Gleneagles Global hospitals, one Continental hospital and an Apollo Glenagles hospital in Kolkata.
Fortis Healthcare, one of India’s largest healthcare chains, has been struggling with legal issues surrounding its former promoters, the Singh brothers, especially with a Supreme Court case by Japanese pharmaceutical firm Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd that has kept the hospital chain’s acquisition by IHH on hold.
The case involves a ₹3,500 crore arbitration award owed by the brothers to Daiichi Sankyo related to a deal over their erstwhile pharmaceutical firm Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd.
In a 15 November judgement, the apex court had initiated suo motu contempt proceedings against Fortis Healthcare for the sale of 31.1% fresh stake to IHH, and the court refrained from lifting its stay on IHH’s open offer to buy an additional 26% stake from other Fortis shareholders.
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