Corporate Watch

Fortis Completes Wockhardt Hospitals Acquisition

Expands pan India footprint to 39 hospitals

Fortis Healthcare Limited recently announced the successful completion of the Rs 909 crore Wockhardt hospitals acquisition. The acquisition has been made under a wholly-owned subsidiary, Fortis Hospitals Limited and funded partly by the recently concluded rights issue, internal accruals and debt.

With the addition of the ten Wockhardt hospitals, Fortis will now have six hospitals in Bangaluru, four hospitals in Mumbai and three hospitals in Kolkata, apart from a vast presence in NCR and a major facility in Chennai. The acquisition augments Fortis bed capacity by 1902 beds (including 534 beds in two under construction projects) and provides significant presence in Southern, Western and Eastern India. The aggregate bed capacity of Fortis Network shall now stand at 5180 beds. With the closure of the deal, Fortis has established its presence across India with a network of 39 hospitals. Religare Capital Markets (the investment banking arm of Religare) acted as advisors to Fortis Healthcare for this deal. Vishal Bali will continue to be the CEO of the acquired business.

The deal was originally announced on August 24, 2009 when Fortis executed a binding agreement to acquire 10 hospitals, which constitute a major part of FY'09 revenues of Wockhardt Hospitals Ltd. This acquisition is in line with Fortis' strategy of deep penetration in key metro cities. The hospitals are delivering high-end critical care to both domestic and international patients in the areas of cardiac, neuro sciences, orthopaedics, MIS, renal sciences, kidney and liver transplants. Two of the acquired Wockhardt hospitals have the coveted international accreditation by Joint Commission International (JCI). With this, Fortis now has three JCI-accredited hospitals in its network. This positions Fortis strongly as a quality destination of choice for medical value travel.

The existing talented team of medical and non-medical professionals will transition to Fortis and will continue to run the operations to consistently deliver compassionate and high quality patient care. Commenting on the announcement, Shivinder Mohan Singh, Managing Director of Fortis Healthcare said, "Fortis is now poised to leverage its national footprint and leadership position to take healthcare delivery in India to another level. We will be able to demonstrate the benefit of scale to our customers through quality, cost and accessibility."

Said Malvinder Mohan Singh, Group Chairman, Fortis Healthcare and Religare Enterprises, "This acquisition is an important milestone in our efforts to establish Fortis in a leadership position in the Indian healthcare delivery space. We are confident that shared values of Wockhardt Hospitals and Fortis Healthcare will form the basis for our continued success in the future." He added, "This acquisition further re-inforces Fortis position of being one of the fastest growing healthcare providers in the country."

EH News Bureau