Khazanah beats Fortis to Parkway

“IHHL is offering to acquire all shares in Parkway that it does not already own at a price of SGD 3.95 per share in cash. The voluntary offer represents a 4.5 per cent increase to the partial offer,” it said.

IHHL had made its partial offer at SGD 3.78 per share. Fortis Healthcare,which had offered a full offer at SGD 3.8 per share,has agreed to exit Parkway.

“Fortis Global healthcare (Mauritius) Ltd,a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fortis Healthcare,has provided an irrevocable undertaking to IHHL to accept the voluntary general offer for all its shares,” the filing added.

Currently,Fortis owns 25.37 per cent of Parkway,while IHHL has 23.32 per cent stake.

IHHL launched a USD 835-million partial offer for 51.5 per cent Parkway stake and Fortis countered it with a USD 2.3-billion dollars offer to fully acquire Parkway.

Originally,IHHL’s partial offer was to close today,while Fortis’ full offer was scheduled to close on August 12.

Fortis made S$116.7 mln profit on Parkway deal

India’s Fortis Healthcare made a profit of S$116.7 million on its deal to accept an offer from Malaysian state investor Khazanah for Singapore’s Parkaway Holdings,a Fortis spokesman said.

Fortis,which owns about 25 percent of Parkway,lost out in a battle for control of the Singapore healthcare firm.

Khazanah poised to trump Fortis

The situation leading up to this conclusion,earlier in the day was…

* Khazanah set to make general offer for Parkway

* Offer at S$3.95/share,valuing Parkway at $3.3 bln

* Fortis shares surge 4 pct on Khazanah’s likely offer

* Analysts expect Fortis to walk from the deal

Malaysian state investor Khazanah is poised to trump an offer from India’s Fortis Healthcare for Singapore’s Parkway in a buyout bid that values Asia’s biggest listed hospital operator at $3.3 billion.

Khazanah — in its biggest acquisition overseas — will offer around S$3.95 ($2.88) per share for all Parkway shares it does not own,topping the S$3.80 offered by rival suitor Fortis Healthcare,sources with knowledge of the deal told Reuters.

The Malaysian fund’s move,if confirmed,could end over two months of tussle over a company that both are eyeing to spearhead their regional expansion in Asia’s booming healthcare market.

Fortis shares surged over 4 percent in early trade in Mumbai. Sources familiar with the deal have said Fortis could walk away from the negotiations once Khazanah makes a formal offer but others think another round of bidding is on the cards.

There could be one more round of bidding till S$4 a share. Fortis will surrender once the price moves beyond S$4 a share as it will not have the financial strength to back it,said Sapna Jhawar,analyst with Mumbai-based brokerage Sharekhan.

Fortis is to hold a news conference in New Delhi at 0630 GMT.

Khazanah and Fortis each currently own about 25 percent of Parkway,which runs hospitals in Singapore,Malaysia,India and China.

I think at a certain stage they (Fortis) would throw in the towel,said Terence Wong,research head at DMG and Partners.

It is not that it would go to S$4.50-S$5.00.

Fortis bought a 24 percent stake in Parkway from buyout firm TPG in March for around S$3.56 a share and subsequently added more shares from the open market. It will make a gross profit of about S$111 million if it sells all its shares in Parkway,according to calculations.

Parkway shares were suspended on Monday pending the announcement by Khazanah and closed at S$3.88 on Friday. The price of S$3.95 would be the highest for its shares since October 2007.

It will be a general offer,said one of the sources who has direct knowledge of Khazanah’s latest bid.

Analysts had expected that Khazanah may have to pay more than S$4.00 a share for Parkway to fend off Fortis. Khazanah,which has a portfolio of $28 billion,is also looking to raise loans through DBS,UOB and OCBC.

Deutsche Bank and CIMB are advising Khazanah and Fortis is being advised by Macquarie and RBS. Morgan Stanley is acting as an independent adviser to Parkway. (S$=1.37 Singapore dollar)