Fortis Healthcare Ltd's auditors have cleared the decks for its sale. Never mind that Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP's heavily qualified audit report reads like a discharge slip for a patient running low on both time and luck. Working out whether India's second-biggest hospital chain is too deeply damaged to survive has been left to the imagination of the two bidders jostling for the opportunity to nurse it back to health. Malaysia's IHH Healthcare Bhd and TPG-backed Manipal Health Enterprises Pvt have already submitted firm bids. IHH is more likely to emerge victorious because it's planning to make an open offer to shareholders at a 10 per cent to 15 per cent premium, Livemint reported on Monday. The 6,500-bed company has good standing with doctors and patients, but its war with its founders is worrisome baggage. Fortis claims brothers Malvinder and Shivinder Singh diverted Rs 5 billion ($73 million) of the publicly traded company's cash to other entities without board approval. A probe by an independent law firm has even raised the possibility that the founders may have used fresh funds to repay a part of previous advances. The board says it will leave it to regulatory inquiries to determine whether a fraud has occurred. India’s Serious Fraud Investigation Office is already on the job.
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