Apollo Hospitals Dilutes Holding In Arm As Advent International Picks Up Stake

Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd. said on Friday that its shareholding in its subsidiary Apollo HealthCo Ltd. had been diluted as an affiliate of private equity major Advent International has picked up a stake in the company.

The affiliate, Rasmeli Investment, has been allotted 14.85 crore class A and 9.9 crore partly paid-up class B shares of AHL. Consequent to this allotment, the shareholding of Apollo Hospitals in AHL has diluted from 94.9% to approximately 78.8%, according to an exchange filing.

The development comes five months after Apollo Hospitals announced that AHL has secured an investment of Rs 2,475 crore from Rasmeli, as part of the plan to merge the company with the Hyderabad-based Keimed Pvt.

The Proposed Merger

In April, Apollo Hospitals said AHL would be merged with Keimed to form a combined entity and it would be valued at Rs 22,481 crore. The estimated valuation is based on the fact that AHL is currently valued at Rs 14,478 crore and Keimed at Rs 8,003 crore.

Both AHL and Keimed operate in the pharmacy distribution segment where they source and act as wholesale distributors of pharmaceutical, fast-moving consumer goods, and over-the-counter products.

Post the merger, shareholders of Keimed would hold a 25.7% stake and Advent would own 12.1%, whereas Apollo Hospitals would be the majority shareholder.

The amalgamation plan received nod from the Competition Commission of India in August.

Shares of Apollo Hospitals closed 0.92% higher at Rs 7,234 apiece on the NSE, compared to a 0.14% decline in the benchmark Nifty. On a year-to-date basis, the stock has climbed 26.8%.