Apollo Hospitals dumps plan to acquire Wockhardt assets

Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd, the country's largest hospital chain, has dropped plans to acquire privately held Wockhardt Hospitals due to differences over valuation.

"The premium they were charging did not make any sense for us, particularly in the locations, since we already have a significant presence in those locations," Preetha Reddy, managing director of Apollo Hospitals said.

"The evaluation was done and what we felt as a fair valuation for our shareholders and investors did not match, we had to regretfully drop the purchase," she added.

Wockhardt Hospitals, promoted by the founders of Wockhardt Ltd, has been trying to raise money through an equity sale since its initial public offer was withdrawn last year on poor investor response.

Wockhardt, she said, has major presence in three metros - Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata.

Apollo Hospitals Enterprises stock touched an intraday low of Rs490.30 and was trading at Rs494 a share, down Rs4.05, or 0.81 per cent from its intraday high of Rs502.70.