India’s Fortis Healthcare Ltd said it has reached a deal to sell its Singapore unit RadLink-Asia Pte Ltd to Fullerton Healthcare group Pte Ltd for $83.47 million.

The deal will be completed on or about May 12, and JPMorgan and India’s Religare Capital Markets advised Fortis on the transaction, the company said in a statement.

The sale has happened at a lower valuation from the deal that was announced last year, but had eventually fallen through – where Fortis said it would sell RadLink to Malaysian firm IHH Healthcare for $108.6 million. DEALSTREETASIA had reported in March that IHH Healthcare Bhd has called off the deal to acquire Radlink-Asia Pte Ltd. The deal had fallen through on grounds of “non-satisfaction” of certain conditions stipulated in its agreement with Fortis Healthcare Singapore Pte Ltd,IHH had said at that time.

The deal had fallen through as the Competition Commission of Singapore (CCS) had blocked IHH’s proposed acquisition of RadLink-Asia stating that it would reduce competition.The CCS said the proposed transaction would result in “a substantial lessening of competition” (SLC) in affected markets, and would infringe section 54 of the Competition Act (Cap. 50B).

Radlink-Asia is Singapore’s largest provider of outpatient diagnostic imaging, nuclear medicine and leading radiopharmaceuticals. It operates four imaging diagnostic centres, including its main facility RadLink Diagnostic Imaging located within Paragon Medical along Orchard Road.

Fortis had acquired RadLink in 2012-13, and the sale is part of the group’s strategy to focus on India and exit overseas investments. It had previously sold healthcare assets in Hong Kong, Australia and Vietnam.

“The significant value that we have created in our international healthcare businesses is now being unlocked and will be ploughed back to strengthen our growth in India,” Fortis Healthcare executive chairman Malvinder Singh and executive vice chairman Shivinder Singh said in a joint statement.

“The divestment of this last major international business is in line with our strategic decision to intensify our focus on our core hospital and diagnostics business in India,” they had added in their statement.

Earlier, in 2010, Fortis and Malaysia’s Khazanah were involved in battle to take over Singapore’s Parkway. But Fortis lost the battle to Khazanah and ended up selling its stake to the Malaysian fund.

Fullerton Healthcare Group provides healthcare solutions in the Asia-Pacific region. Headquartered in Singapore, the firm operates 130 fully-owned clinics across the Asia-Pacific, and is supported by a global network of more than 1,000 doctors and nurses, 8,000 medical providers and institutions.

Source: Deal Street Asia