Fortis completes deal to pocket 10 Wockhardt hospitals

Fortis Hospitals Ltd, a subsidiary of Fortis Healthcare Ltd, has completed the acquisition of the greenfield hospital division of Wockhardt Hospitals in a Rs909 crore deal that was signed in August this year.

Fortis has acquired 10 hospitals from Wockhardt (including two under construction) in the cities of Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata on a going-concern basis, the company said in a statement. 

The acquisition was funded partly by a recently concluded rights issue, internal accruals and debt. The new hospitals will expand Fortis' bed capacity by 1,902 (including 534 beds in the two under-construction projects) and provides the company a significant presence in southern, western and eastern India. 

The aggregate bed capacity of Fortis Network now stands at 5,180 beds, the company 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," Fortis Healthcare managing director Shivinder Mohan Singh said in the statement. 

With the addition of the 10 Wockhardt hospitals, Fortis would now have six hospitals in Bangalore, four in Mumbai and three in Kolkata apart from a large presence in the Delhi National Capital Region and a major facility in Chennai. 

"We are confident that shared values of Wockhardt Hospitals and Fortis Healthcare will form the basis for our continued success in the future," Fortis Healthcare and Religare Enterprises group chairman Malvinder Mohan Singh said. 

The troubled Wockhardt sold the hospitals as it is in the midst of restructuring its businesses, and is selling non-core units as it seeks to raise funds to settle some of its debt.