Fortis buys 74% in SRL for Rs 803 cr

Fortis Healthcare , promoted by billionaire brothers Malvinder Mohan Singh and Shivinder Mohan Singh, on Thursday said it has acquired 74.59 per cent stake in its group firm Super Religare Laboratories (SRL) for Rs 803 crore.

"The company on May 12, completed the acquisition of the strategic stake of 74.59 per cent in the existing expanded equity share capital of SRL, from the promoters of SRL," Fortis Healthcare (India) Ltd said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

When contacted, a company spokesperson said that the total cost for the acquisition was Rs 803 crore. Earlier last month, Fortis had said it would acquire 86 per cent stake in SRL. Since then, private equity firm Avigo Capital Partners has picked up 9.27 per cent stake in SRL in a pre-IPO placement for an aggregate amount of nearly Rs 100 crore.

Another PE firm Sabre Partners has also invested Rs 50 crore. Due to these deals, the share capital of SRL, which has also proposed an IPO, has grown - resulting in the proposed number of shares to be acquired by Fortis accounting for only 74.59 per cent stake, as against 86 per cent previously.

The spokesperson said that the proposed acquisition of 86 per cent of capital with 52 million shares is now equivalent to about 75 per cent of the expanded capital post the preferential allotment to the two PE firms.

In February this year, SRL had filed a Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for a public issue of 28 million shares and the document is awaiting comments from Sebi, it said.

As per the DRHP, promoter and promoter groups held 85.67 per cent sake in SRL. SRL's present network consists of eight reference laboratories, seven centres of excellence, 181 network laboratories (164 pathology, 17 radiology), 15 wellness centres and 888 collection centres.

Fortis commissioned its first hospital in 2001 at Mohali, and has grown into a network of 56 hospitals with an over 8,000 bed capacity.