Mumbai, Oct 18: NRI tycoon B R Shetty’s BR Life—the largest private healthcare company in the UAE—has won the sale bid of the debt-ridden Seven-Hills Hospital in Marol by virtue of being the sole bidder. The bidding amount has not be revealed by both the parties.
With an estimated debt of Rs 1,270 crore, SevenHills went under the hammer this year after lenders led by Axis Bank and a State Bank of India consortium initiated insolvency proceedings against the chain founded by Dr Jitendra Maganti, who is also its managing director.
In Mumbai, SevenHills was built with a public-private partnership of nearly Rs 1,000-crore investment that failed to take off, with the municipal corporation suing the 1,000-bed hospital for non-compliance of the memorandum of understanding.
In the deal, Jitendra Das Maganti, founder and managing director, also lost his Visakhapatnam hospital and a bungalow in Hyderabad, which had been mortgaged against various bank loans. High-level sources said since the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) took up the insolvency case, Maganti has not been seen at the Marol hospital.
According to sources, Nita Ambani led Reliance Foundation was among the 15 entities which had submitted ‘expression of interest’ documents to purchase the hospital. They had predicted the base price would be around Rs 2,100 crore.
The BRS group not only turned out to be the sole bidder but also quoted a low price. Sources said Reliance Foundation bowed out of the race owing to differences with the BMC, which owns the 17-acre plot on which the hospital has been built.
Owing to the low bid, the Hyderabad bench of the NCLT has granted a three month extension till December to complete the corporate insolvency resolution process. Hospital authorities say this period will allow the tribunal-appointed interim resolution professional to negotiate a higher sale price with the BRS group as well as ask other bidders to come forward.
Sources, however, said the deal is as good as done, as a team from BR Life has been paying regular visits to the hospital to medical equipment vendors and suppliers as well as doctors to get an estimate of the pending dues. The Abu Dhabi-based healthcare provider plans to reopen the hospital next year. BMC officials said the dues of banks, hospital employees and vendors stand at Rs 2,100 crore.
Born in undivided Dakshina Kannada district in 1942, Shetty emerged as a business tycoon after he moved to the UAE in 1973. He was awarded the Padmashree in 2009 for his contribution in the field of trade and industry, and the ‘Order of Abu Dhabi’, the highest civilian honour bestowed by the Abu Dhabi government, in 2005.
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