RHT Health Trust surges 15% on offer by controlling shareholder

UNITS in RHT Health Trust surged on Wednesday morning following an offer by its controlling shareholder Fortis Healthcare Limited to buy its entire asset portfolio for 46.5 billion Indian rupees (S$965.95 million).

The counter was up 12 Singapore cents, or 14.8 per cent, to trade at 93 Singapore cents as at 9.19am.

In an exchange filing on Wed morning, RHT Health Trust Manager Pte Ltd said it has received a proposal from Fortis to acquire all the sale securities held by RHT Singapore's wholly-owned subsidiaries, Fortis Global Healthcare Infrastructure Pte Ltd and RHT Healthtrust Services Pte Ltd.

This would result in the sale of all of RHT's Indian subsidiaries, its 49 per cent stake in Fortis Hospotel Ltd, and its entire asset portfolio including interests in 12 clinical establishments, four greenfield clinical establishments and two operating hospitals in India.

Both have entered into a term sheet to negotiate exclusively for 60 days.

Fortis, a large integrated healthcare delivery service provider in India, holds an indirect interest of about 29.76 per cent of units in RHT.

RHT Health Trust Manager has appointed Merrill Lynch (Singapore) as its exclusive financial adviser to advise on the proposed disposal.

The net proceeds are intended to be substantially distributed to unitholders, said the trustee-manager.