Fortis to sell Singapore subsidiary to Fullerton for Rs530 crore

Fortis Healthcare said on Friday it has agreed to sell its entire stake in Singapore-based healthcare services unit RadLink-Asia Pte Ltd and subsidiaries for about Rs530 crore to Fullerton Healthcare Group.

Fortis Healthcare executive chairman Malvinder Singh (right) and executive vice chairman Shivinder Singh

Fortis Healthcare Singapore extends primary and diagnostic care through RadLink-Asia Pte Ltd Singapore's largest provider of outpatient diagnostic imaging, nuclear medicine and leading radiopharmaceuticals

The deal is around Rs130 crore lower than the one it had negotiated with IHH Healthcare of Malaysia, which was aborted by the Competition Commission of Singapore, on concerns over IHH already running a large establishment in Singapore (See: Fortis to sell RadLink-Asia to Malaysia's IHH Healthcare for $108mn).

''The significant value that we have created in our international healthcare businesses is now being unlocked and will be ploughed back to strengthen our growth in India,'' Fortis Healthcare executive chairman Malvinder Singh and executive vice-chairman Shivinder Singh said in a joint statement.

''The divestment of this last major international business is in line with our strategic decision to intensify focus on our core hospital and diagnostics business in India,'' they added.

The sale of RadLink to Fullerton Healthcare Group is expected to be completed by 12 May, Fortis said in a release.

JP Morgan and Religare Capital Markets acted as financial advisors for the transaction. They had also advised Fortis in selling a Singapore-based hospital asset to Chinese healthcare services firm Concord Medical Services for Rs251 crore.

Fortis had been aggressively acquiring overseas healthcare assets in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Singapore and Dubai, between 2010 and 2011, which saddled the company with debt of around Rs7,000-crore the middle of the 2012-13 fiscal.

Fortis has since started selling these assets to trim its debt. Today, almost all of Fortis' revenues are from India.