Singapore/New Delhi, July 26
Withdrawing from the fierce acquisition battle, Fortis Healthcare today announced to sell its entire equity in Parkway for over $800 million, thus paving way for rival Malaysia's Khazanah to takeover the Singapore-based hospital chain for $2.5 billion.

Ending the nearly two-month long battle for control over Parkway, the Indian healthcare chain agreed to sell its 25.37 per cent stake to Khazanah, which converted its earlier $835 million partial offer to a full general offer.

In a filing to the Singapore Stock Exchange, Khazanah's arm Integrated Healthcare Holdings (IHHL) said it is offering to acquire all shares in Parkway that it does not already own, at a price of SGD 3.95 per share in cash. The voluntary offer represents a 4.5 per cent increase to the partial offer. IHHL's previous partial offer was to close today.

"Fortis Global Healthcare (Mauritius) Ltd (FGH), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fortis Healthcare, has provided an irrevocable undertaking to IHHL to accept the voluntary general offer for all its shares," the filing added.

The Singh family-owned Fortis had picked up 23.9 per cent stake in Parkway for about $685.3 million (nearly Rs 3,100 crore) when it bought TPG Capital's shares in March this year.

Later they increased it to 25.37 per cent holding, comprising 28.27 crore shares at an average share price of SGD 3.54. The total outgo from the Indian firm was at about Rs 3,450 crore.

After this transaction is complete, Fortis will get about Rs 3,800 crore and the overall gain from the investment in Parkway will stand at about Rs 350 crore.

"At the offer price of SGD 3.95 per share, the value of other shares in the issue (including Fortis' stake) as of July 26 is approximately SGD 3.5 billion (around $2.5 billion)," IHHL said, adding the offer will now close on August 16.

IHHL, which owns 23.32 per cent stake in Parkway, had made a partial offer at SGD 3.78 per share in May and Fortis Healthcare had countered it with a $2.3 billion full offer at SGD 3.8 per share scheduled to close on August 12.

Stressing that he was never interested in a bidding war, Fortis Healthcare chairman Malvinder Mohan Singh said: "At SGD 3.8 per share, it was already stretched out. We think at some point of time it was not economically viable... We have taken into account what is best for every shareholder of Fortis." Describing the development a win-win situation for both the parties, he said: "While we believe that Parkway is a very good asset, but every asset has certain intrinsic value that led us to believe that we should divest our stake in Parkway." He said Fortis will be receiving the money from Khazanah in about a month's time.

Singh, who is currently the chairman of Parkway, said the Singapore-based company's board will decide about the continuation of his position in the firm after today's development. — PTI

Mumbai, July 26
Hinting at a hike in its key rates tomorrow, the RBI today said it would continue exiting from its easy money regime to check double-digit inflation, while ensuring stable economic growth.

"Given the risk to inclusive growth from high inflation, the monetary unwinding that started in October, 2009, should continue till inflation expectations are firmly anchored and inflation is brought down," RBI said in its macroeconomic report.

The RBI is set to unveil its quarterly review of the annual monetary policy tomorrow. It is widely expected to hike its short-term lending and borrowing rates (repo and reverse repo) by at least 0.25 per cent each to tame inflation, which was 10.55 per cent in June.

"The major policy concern... would be to contain inflationary pressures and anchor inflationary expectations," the central bank said.

Citing a continuing growth momentum, the RBI professional forecasters upped their 2010-11 GDP growth projection to 8.4 per cent against 8.2 per cent reported in the previous survey.

Referring to the prevailing tight cash conditions in the system, RBI said the liquidity situation will ease but "the calibrated normalisation of monetary policy may not lead to return of the persistent easy liquidity conditions that prevailed last year". — PTI

Chandigarh, July 26
Taking a step towards financial inclusion in distant places, the RBI has permitted scheduled commercial banks to operate mobile bank branches and mobile ATMs in tier-3 to tier-6 centres. Now, banks will not require any permission from the RBI to start these mobile branches, but will have to give intimation to RBI that such a branch and ATM is being set up.

The decision has been taken as part of the liberalisation of the Branch Authorisation Policy. These branches can be set up in any rural, semi-urban and urban centres in North-Eastern states, which have a population of less than 50,000. The move follows the earlier directive of the RBI to all scheduled commercial banks to open bank branches in areas which have a population of less than 50,000, without seeking its prior approval.

Sources informed TNS that the decision for opening mobile branches has been taken to meet the 100 per cent financial inclusion target. Since a number of banks had been complaining about the lack of infrastructure in setting up these branches, especially in the far-flung and hilly areas, RBI has come up with the idea of mobile bank branches.

The mobile bank branch will provide all services in a well-protected van. Two or three bank officials will be stationed in these branches with books, safe containing cash etc. The mobile unit will visit the places proposed to be served on specific days and hours. The villages/centres which are served by co-operative banks and places served by regular branch of commercial banks, will not be included for these mobile branches and mobile ATMs.

The business transacted at the mobile branch shall be recorded in the books of the base branch/data centre. 

New Delhi, July 26
The exercise for hunting a new CMD for the state-run telecom operator BSNL began today with the government inviting applications from candidates from both the public and private sector.

The government has also sought applications to head the other state-run telco MTNL.

The selection of candidates would be of interest particularly as both the public sector telecom companies have been facing stiff competition from the private operators leading to their profits nosediving.

Usually, the responsibility of selecting professionals for public sector units (PSUs) rests with the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PSEB). The deviation in the selection process for BSNL and MTNL is being done as part of restructuring to make them financially viable, as recommended by the Sam Pitroda panel.

Turning around the companies would be the biggest challenge which the new incumbents would have to face. Besides, they would also have to tackle the strong unions of the two companies.

If candidates from the private sector are selected, this will be the first time that these telecom PSUs are headed by chiefs from the private sector. The government has constituted a Search-cum-Selection panel headed by the Cabinet Secretary for finding suitable candidates for these posts.

New Delhi, July 26
Vedanta Group company Sterlite Industries today posted a nearly 50 per cent increase in profit, at Rs 1,008.43 crore, for the first quarter of the current fiscal. However, analysts said the result was below expectations.

New Delhi, July 26
Moody's today upgraded India's local currency sovereign rating by a notch on the country's efforts toward fiscal reforms and the economy's capacity to face a crisis, a move that will result in greater capital inflows and appreciation of rupee value.

Though the global rating agency has upgraded the local currency government bond grading from Ba2 to Ba1, it is still a notch below investment grade.

Moody's has a positive outlook on the rating, which means there might be a further upgrade later.

"The upgrade of the local currency sovereign rating to Ba1 was prompted by the Indian government's adoption of a medium-term (2010-2015) fiscal consolidation strategy, which is supported by a broadening structural reform programme," said Moody's vice-president Aninda Mitra.

Meanwhile, Moody's retained India's foreign currency rating at Baa3 (the lowest investment grade) with a stable outlook, thus narrowing the gap between the local and foreign currency ratings to one notch.

YES Bank chief economist Shubhada Rao said the upgrade will help greater capital inflows into the country and will have a positive impact on the pricing of overseas funds, besides marginally backing rupee's appreciation against dollar.

"Any improvement or upgrade augurs well in terms of global investment appetite. Going forward it will boost the capital inflow when risk appetite returns in the global market," Rao said.

Moody's said the government's ongoing policy reforms, disinvestments, fuel subsidy reforms, along with impending tax reforms will support its fiscal and debt position, and may even outperform the government debt targets.

After India's fiscal deficit targets went awry due to the stimulus packages offered by the government to blunt the impact of the global financial crisis, many rating agencies had warned of sovereign ratings cuts.

Citing other reasons for the upgrade, Moody's said the economy showed resilience during the global recession and the government did not heavily resorted to non-market measures for funding stimulus, which could have carried credibility costs. — PTI

BRIEFLY

EIL price band at Rs 270-290
New Delhi: The government on Monday set Rs 270-290 as the price band for the follow-on public offering of state-run Engineers India Ltd. A GoM headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee set the price band at a discount on Friday's closing of Rs 337.65 for the sale of government's 10 per cent stake in the firm.— PTI

Allahabad Bank tie-up
Chandigarh: Allahabad Bank has tied up with Ural India Ltd, manufacturer of heavy commercial vehicles, for promotion of the bank’s commercial vehicle financing at the bank’s head office in Kolkata. The MoU was signed by BK Srivastav, general manager, retail credit, Allahabad Bank, and A.Kanoi, director, Ural India Ltd. — TNS

Karbonn dual sim mobile
New Delhi: Handset maker Karbonn Mobiles on Sunday unveiled dual sim, QWERTY phone Karbonn K25 priced at Rs 4,400 as its latest offering for the Indian market. The mobile phone is equipped with FM radio, torch, video recording, expandable memory up to 8 GB, hi-fidelity sound, different equaliser effects, optical trackpad, 2 MP camera and bluetooth, it said.— PTI

Toyota to launch Etios in Dec
Mumbai: Carmaker Toyota will launch its new small car 'Etios' in December this year and sales will begin in January next year, a top company official said. "We are setting up a new facility for our new car, 'Etios', which will be completed soon and the production will start a little ahead of December. We will launch the car in December and the sales will start in January next year," Toyota Kirloskar Motor deputy MD Sandeep Singh said. — PTI

SKS Microfinance IPO price band
New Delhi: The nation's largest microfinance company, SKS Microfinance, on Monday fixed the price band of its IPO at Rs 850 to Rs 985 per share. The firm expects to raise up to Rs 1,654 crore through the initial public offering, which opens on July 28. — PTI