YES Bank confident of Fortis fetching good valuation

Terming Fortis Healthcare, which is on the block, as "a very attractive asset", its single largest shareholder YES Bank on Saturday exuded confidence of a sound resolution with a good valuation and thus help drive out of the management crisis plaguing one of the largest corporate hospital chains in the county.

In February this year, YES Bank, which was the largest lender to the hospital, had acquired a 17.31% stake by invoking nearly 9 crore pledged shares. Later in mid-March, it sold 2.17% of this bringing down its shareholding to 15.14% as of March 2018.

Still this makes the city-based private lender the single largest shareholder in the New Delhi headquartered corporate hospital chain.

"Fortis is more than a performing asset for us," YES Bank managing director and chief executive Rana Kapoor said, adding, "I am very convinced that there will be very good resolution."

In the March quater earnings announcement, the bank has last week said its over Rs 1,500 crore exposure to Fortis is classified as "standard" in its books and that the bank has sufficient securities to cover the exposure.

Kapoor said he is not concerned about the quality of the bidders as Fortis is a prime healthcare assets in the country.

Four entities--the Manipal/TPG consortium, the KKR- backed Radiant Life Care, Malaysian major IHH Healthcare, and the family offices of the Munjals and Burmans -- have given binding offers to the Fortis board.

"There are four-five world class bidders and the asset will be valued properly in the course of time," Kapoor told reporters on the sidelines of an economic summit at the BSE. He said the bank, as a shareholder, is not active in the valuation process of the hospital chain but has observed improvement in transparency and disclosures in the process.

"At the end of the day, it is going to be very competitive and fetch fantastic value for all investors, including minority shareholders," he added. On April 25, Renuka Ramnath, former head of ICICI Venture, resigned from the expert committee formed to evaluate the binding bids.