Temasek set to buy 5% Apollo Hospitals stake

Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd is offering a five per cent stake to Singapore's Temasek Capital (Private) Ltd to raise Rs 51.17 crore (Rs 511.7 milion).

The money is being raised to repay Apollo Hospital's high-cost debt, its technological upgradation and to meet long term working capital requirement and corporate requirements, the company's notice for extraordinary general body meeting stated.

AHEL is allotting 2,079,930 shares at Rs 246 per share (with a face value of Rs 10) to Temasek.

This allotment will take the total foreign investment in the company to 41.95 per cent from 38.26 per cent as on June 30,2004.

The time frame set for the allotment is 15 days from the passing of resolution by the shareholders or the date on which the company obtains all applicable government approvals for consummating the transaction, the EGM notice said.

The shares will be allotted in dematerialised form. Following this allotment, a nominee of Temasek will join AHEL's board of directors and the board will be reconstituted accordingly.

In the quarter ended June 30, 2004, the company posted a net profit of Rs 10.5 crore {Rs 105 million (compared with Rs 7.8 crore in the same quarter in the previous year)}.

This was on a turnover of Rs 134.8 crore (Rs 114.2 crore). The company had closed the financial year 2003-04 with a net profit of Rs 37.1 crore (Rs 371 million) on a turnover of Rs 499.8 crore (Rs 4.99 billion).