Fortis to move regulator SIC against Khazanah

After Malaysian sovereign wealth fund Khazanah claimed yesterday that it had support from Singapore hospital chain Parkway's shareholders for its partial offer, Fortis is said to be planning to up the ante. The company is believed to be preparing to move the regulator SIC tomorrow against Khazanah on charges of misleading shareholders.

According to a report in The Economic Times, citing unnamed sources close to Fortis advisors, the company would approach the Singapore Securities Industry Council (SIC) tomorrow against Khazanah arm Integrated Healthcare Holdings (IHHL), which has made a partial offer to increase its shareholding to 51.5 per cent in Parkway.

"They (Khazanah) have not specified whether the votes they claimed to have received in the voting was done before or after Fortis' counter offer,'' according to a source close to the development,t the ET report said.

According to another source, Khazanah is trying to increase its offer price as its partial offer is turning out to be unattractive to shareholders, the report said. "Since theirs is only a partial offer, a shareholder will not be able to fully benefit from it as only a portion of shares will be accepted," the source said.

According to another source, the offer would remain unattractive unless they offered $S5 per share.

Khazanah had earlier claimed that it had received the approval of the majority of eligible shareholders of Parkway who had thus far voted on its partial offer.