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Standard Chartered boosts stake as India’s Fortis moves to cut debt

  • Mirzaan Jamwal
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Standard Chartered Private Equity (SCPE) will invest a further $13.5 million in hospital chain Fortis Healthcare through a preferential allotment of shares, taking its total holding to around 2.7%.

According to a regulatory filing, the Fortis board has authorized the issue of up to 8.85 million shares to Standard Chartered Private Equity (Mauritius) III for $13.5 million. This works out to around INR90 per share, lower than the INR92 per share the firm paid in May this year, when it invested around INR370 million ($7.6 million).

The shares were trading at INR99 on the Mumbai bourse when Fortis announced the new allotment, which is still subject to shareholder approval.

Fortis has been taking measure to reduce its total debt, which stood at INR51.6 billion of March 31. It had revenues of INR60.5 billion with a net profit of INR5 billion.

The company plans to raise up to $43.5 million through various instruments, including issue of foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs) worth up to $30 million on Singapore Exchange.

In April Fortis also struck a deal with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to raise $100 million through a mix of preferential allotment and FCCBs.

Other investors in the hospital chain include Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) and PremjiInvest.

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