Fortis Healthcare to acquire 86 per cent stake in 'group' firm SRL

Fortis Healthcare (India) Ltd, the country's fastest-growing chain of hospitals, and owned by brothers Malvinder and Shivinder Singh, will acquire an 86-per cent stake in Super Religare Laboratories Ltd (SRL), also owned by the Singh siblings, for an undisclosed amount.

The Fortis board on Thursday gave its in-principle approval to the company to acquire the 86-per cent stake in SRL, one of India's leading diagnostic services companies, offering diagnostic testing (including pathology and radiology), preventive care testing and clinical research trial testing.

''We see great benefit in augmenting the Fortis presence with new speciality-based verticals,'' said Shivinder Mohan Singh, managing director, Fortis Healthcare. ''The addition of diagnostics and retail dialysis will serve to enhance the quality of care to our customers.''

According to Singh, the new structure is a meaningful step toward medical inclusion in India and will help the company offer value-based medicine. ''This will better enable Fortis to deliver comprehensive and quality healthcare, with end to end service, thus taking us a step closer to our goal of reliable, affordable and accessible medical services for all.''

Fortis Healthcare (India) Ltd, now in its tenth year of operations, has grown to become a pan-India company, with a network of over 8,000 beds across nearly 50 hospitals. Besides the stated target of at least 25 hospitals in India's tier-II and tier-III towns over the next two years, Fortis is adding new verticals focused on medical specialities.

In addition to the two recently launched verticals, C-Doc for Diabetes and Metabolic diseases and Stem Cell therapy centres, the Forits board approved the setting up of standalone dialysis centres and a foray into standalone and in-hospital Diagnostic centres.