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    Fortis board to form committee to evaluate bids

    Synopsis

    The board will also seek shareholders' approval to name more directors to the board of Fortis.

    Fortis Healthcare sale: Board forms panel to evaluate bids
    The Fortis board today decided to form a committee of experts for evaluation of bids for the beleaguered hospital chain under investigation for financial irregularities.

    The committee will go through the binding offers received for Fortis Healthcare. The board will also seek shareholders' approval to name more directors to the board of Fortis.

    The committee, which will be chaired by PricewaterhouseCoopers India's former chairman and CEO Deepak Kapoor, will oversee the evaluation process and give its recommendation to the board in a meeting on April 26, Fortis said in a statement.

    "In exercise of its fiduciary duties, the board has decided to evaluate the binding offers and has appointed an advisory committee and also directed Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) to assist the committee," the statement added.

    In order to evaluate the binding offers, the advisory committee will, after due evaluation and post taking into account the independent view of Standard Chartered Bank, make a final recommendation to the board by April 26, 2018, it added.

    On the basis of the decision by the board, the final proposal will be put forward to the shareholders for their approval, it added.

    The board has also named Rohit Bhasin as an independent director.

    So far Fortis has received bids from Manipal-TPG, China's Fosun, Malaysia's IHH and a joint bid from Hero Enterprise Investments and the Burmans of Dabur group. Both IHH and Fosun had made non-bonding offers while Hero-Dabur alliance has filed a revised binding offer.

    Ace investor and minority shareholder Rakesh Jhunjhunwala had raised questions over the depth of the board to handle the bidding process. He had said that the hospital chain should be sold through a “fair” process that allowed all interested parties to bid.

    “The deal on behalf of Fortis hospitals has been approved by a board directors of which have been elected under the auspices of Mr Shivinder Singh and (his family). They are no longer the shareholders of this company,” Jhunjhunwala had said, questioning the right of the board to approve and recommend the deal after the board had initially accepted the TPG-Manipal Group offer.


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