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IHH Healthcare CEO Tan See Leng and three other officials from the company were appointed to the board of Fortis Healthcare on Tuesday.
New Delhi: IHH Healthcare Bhd will review the projects and capital expenditure of Fortis Healthcare Ltd, the Malaysian healthcare giant said on Wednesday, a day after infusing ₹4,000 crore in its newly acquired cash-strapped hospital chain headquartered in India. “One of the key things that we will be settling down and working with the existing management is to review all of the projects. We will also review the capex requirements and study the overall funding that is required,” said IHH Healthcare’s managing director and chief executive officer (CEO) Tan See Leng.
“While we had set aside ₹4,000 crore, we are fully cognizant of the fact that we will need more money to really look at reviewing at capex and looking at some of these green field investments in terms of expansion and also bringing up new hospital sites,” Tan said.
Tan and three other officials from IHH Healthcare were appointed to the board of Fortis Healthcare on Tuesday. The move followed the Malaysian healthcare chain’s acquisition of 31.1% stake in Fortis Healthcare for ₹4,000 crore.
The management is close to selecting candidates for the positions of chief executive officer (CEO) and chief financial officer (CFO). Meanwhile, a transition team has been formed comprising former Fortis CEO Bhavdeep Singh, Fortis chairman Ravi Rajagopal and Daljeet Singh, an old confidant of founder Shivinder Singh.
“We have started the process… The moment we got to know about Bhavdeep’s intention we quickly formed a transition team. IHH will also work with the transition team. The search will happen quite quickly. We are close to narrowing down the number of candidates. The announcement will come quite soon,” Tan said.
The mandatory open offer for acquiring up to 26% of the expanded capital from existing shareholders of Fortis at ₹170 per share for a consideration of up to ₹3,300 crore would be completed by end of this year, he said.
Fortis chairman Rajagopal, meanwhile, called Tuesday, 13 November, a red-letter day for Fortis.
“It has ended months of uncertainty, a period when our doctors were not sure whether they will be able to take care of their patients, our employees were not sure whether their salaries will be paid and bankers were not sure whether their loans will be repaid. With Tuesday’s capital injection and with IHH coming on board, our focus will now be on growing the business,” said Rajagopal.
With no specific plan to change the brand name immediately, Tan said his priority is to stabilize Fortis, which still faces headwinds. “We will now restore, stabilize Fortis further to normalcy, including in its day-to-day operations,” he said.
Tan, along with other IHH Healthcare executives who have been on a three-day visit to India starting Tuesday, held a town hall with senior doctors at Fortis Gurgaon, with live telecast across all Fortis centres.
“This transition will be seamless and importantly Fortis patients will continue to get the same quality of clinical care uninterrupted. Together IHH will ensure that Fortis forges ahead as a leading healthcare provider in India. We hope to expand the footprint aggressively overseas, strengthening its balance sheet, cooperate governance and clinical governance,” Tan said.
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