Fortis Healthcare Ltd. said the Hero Enterprise Investment Office and the Burman Family Office gave their consent to re-open the bidding process for the company.
The Indian hospital chain recently accepted the Hero-Burman consortium's offer to invest 18 billion Indian rupees in the cash-strapped company, lower than what others, including Manipal Health Enterprises Private Ltd. and TPG Capital Advisors LLC were willing to funnel in the business.
The Hero-Burman consortium said there was an indecision on Fortis' part given that certain of the hospital chain shareholders' wanted to re-open bidding.
The consortium said the situation had arisen due to a "lack of information available to Fortis shareholders."
The consortium added that it has allowed the bidding process to restart keeping in mind the "dilemma of the company" and help Fortis finalize and close its fundraising so that the "business does not suffer any further."
A Fortis spokesperson told Reuters that the company had yet to decide whether it would reopen bidding which previously saw the participation of Malaysia's IHH Healthcare Bhd., Indian healthcare facility operator Radiant Life Care Private Ltd., Chinese conglomerate Fosun International Ltd., as well as two separate consortiums comprising Manipal-TPG and Hero-Burman.
As of May 25, US$1 was equivalent to 67.80 Indian rupees.
