Healthcare major Fortis, along with the family of promoters including Malvinder Singh, has made a counter bid for Parkway Holdings, valuing it at $3.1 billion. This has been done so that they can stop the bid process of their Malaysian competitor, Khazanah for the Singaporean hospital chain.
The step comes after Fortis was surprised by Khazanah bidding for the chain for $835 million as initial offer during May. Fortis is a stakeholder in Parkway and holds 25 per cent stake. Khazanah, on the other hand, is a majority stakeholder and owns 51.5 per cent in it.
Some analysts believe Fortis is trying to test the market and that is why it waited for so long before making its own bid.
Meanwhile, Malvinder Singh while talking to media houses has said that he wants to club Fortis and Parkway as one entity and make it a listed company.
Both Khaznah and Fortis want to use the capabilities of Parkway, one of the biggest hospital chains in Asia, to spearhead their regional growth. Parkway has operations in Singapore, Malaysia, India and China.
Malvinder sold his stake in Ranbaxy to give more time to Fortis and Religare.
Source: Stock Watch