Fortis shortlists 4 entities for biz sale

NEW DELHI: Fortis Healthcare Friday said it has shortlisted four entities -- the Munjal-burman combine, Manipal-tpg consortium, Malaysia’s IHH Healthcare Berhand and Radiant Life Care to bid for the sale of its business.

In a regulatory filing, Fortis said it has received interest from various parties on May 31, as per the timeline specified in the fresh process for bidding.

It said the company’s board has decided to include the following four parties -- Hero Enterprise Investment Office and Burman Family Office (Dabur), IHH Healthcare Berhand, Radiant Life Care, Manipal-tpg consortium in the bidding process.

Earlier this week, Fortis Healthcare initiated a fresh time-bound bidding process for its sale after terminating the offer made by the Munjal-burman combine.

As part of the process, the Fortis board decided to invite three entities that had put in binding offers -- Munjal-burman combine, Tpg-manipal consortium, and Malaysia’s IHH Healthcare Berhad -- to participate in the fresh bidding process subject to certain conditions.

The three entities were given time till Friday to confirm adherence to the new bidding process while other interested parties were also required to submit an Expres- sion of Interest (EOI) by May 31.

As per the fresh criteria, the buyers have to make a minimum investment of Rs 1,500 crore into Fortis Healthcare by way of preferential allotment apart from having a plan for funding the acquisition of RHT Health Trust (RHT) and a plan for providing exit to private equity investors of diagnostic arm SRL.

Among others, the bids should be unconditional as well as mention about the source of funds for the transaction and elaborate on the plans for retention of current management and employees.

Last week, Fortis board was reconstituted after shareholders had voted out its director Brian Tempest, who was among the four directors whose removal was sought by two institutional investors. Three other directors -- Harpal Singh, Sabina Vaisoha and Tejinder Singh Shergill -- had resigned ahead of an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) on May 22. During the meeting, shareholders voted out Tempest.

Interestingly, these four directors were among those who had favoured the binding offer made by Munjalburman combine. Following the board revamp, Suvalaxmi Chakraborty, Ravi Rajagopal and Indrajit Banerjee have joined as independent directors. NEW DELHI: As many as 9 PSU banks, which are currently under RBI watch for poor financial health, have submitted a two-year recovery plan to the government entailing stake sale in subsidiaries and reduction of corporate loan book.

Finance Minister Piyush Goyal had last month asked these 11 PSU banks to come up with a plan to strengthen finances and meet the RBI’S capital adequacy norms.

Of these, 9 banks have already submited report to the Department of Financial Services, an official said.

The 11 banks under Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) are Dena Bank, Allahabad Bank, United Bank of India, Corporation Bank, IDBI Bank, UCO Bank, Bank of India, Central Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce and Bank of Maharashtra.

Under the PCA, banks face restrictions on distributing dividends and remitting profits. The owner may be asked to infuse capital into the lender. Besides, the lenders are stopped from expanding their branch networks and need to maintain higher provisions. Management compensation and directors fees are also capped.

The recovery plan as presented by these banks include cost cutting, reducing branches size, closing foreign branches, NEW DELHI: Stating that the economy is on an “uptrend”, industry body Ficci on Friday said the March quarter GDP growth at 7.7 per cent gives an “optimistic picture”.

It said that India’s growth scenario is set to improve further going ahead and the GDP shrinking corporate loan book as well as sell risky assets to other lenders, the official said.

During its meeting with the PCA banks, the Finance Ministry had asked them to actively consider stake sale in subsidiaries, maintain capital adequacy and conservation buffer, the official added.

Attributing the bad financial health of the PSU banks to reckless lending during the Congress regime, Goyal on Friday said the present NDA government is trying the fix the banking sector woes. “During the Congress regime, PSU banks gave loans recklessly, which impacted their financial health. Those loans were also restructured to present a distorted picture. The present govt has provided the true picture of the health of banks and is now making effort to improve their finances,” Goyal said in a tweet. is expected to grow at 7.5 per cent in the current fiscal. However, the chamber cautioned that one will have to be watchful about the movement in the oil prices in the global market as well as the pace at which the health of the domestic banking sector improves.