Fortis Healthcare set to close Singapore buy by Dec-end

NEW DELHI, (Reuters): Hospital chain Fortis Healthcare (India), controlled by billionaire brothers Malvinder and Shivinder Singh, is on course to raise funds and close the takeover of Singapore-based group firm Fortis Healthcare International by end-December, its chairman said.

“It’s getting closed. I have no worries on it,” Malvinder Singh told Reuters in an interview on Monday.

The brothers control Fortis Healthcare (India) and entirely own Fortis Healthcare International. The Indian firm had said last month it would buy the overseas firm for $665 million.

Fortis India is in the process of raising $175 million in fresh debt to fund the deal.

The transaction would raise the net debt at Fortis India to $1 billion and debt-equity ratio to 1.5 from under 0.5 now.

The company aims to bring it down to under 1 by March by infusing fresh equity, though it will not sell shares in the parent company, Singh said.

“One is SRL private equity, that’s going to come in as third round of funding. Second is that we are looking at asset-light model and by those two methods we will address the (debt-equity ratio of)1-1 by March,” Singh said.

Earlier this year, Fortis bought 86 percent stake in diagnostic services firm Super Religare Laboratories Ltd (SRL) from Singh brothers.