Morgan Stanley buys 40,000 more shares in Parkway

SINGAPORE: Morgan Stanley today said one of its investment arms FrontPoint Management has bought an additional 40,000 shares in Singapore''s hospital chain Parkway at 3.57 Singapore dollar a piece. With this, total number of shares held by Morgan Stanley in Parkway, which is controlled by India''s Fortis, has increased to 6.74 lakh, the company said in a filing to the Singapore Stock Exchange.

The financial firm, had recently purchased 35,000 shares of Parkway, taking its total holding to 6.34 lakh shares, representing under 1 per cent of Parkway''s stake. Parkway, the largest listed hospital chain in Asia, is at the centre of a tussle between the Singh family-promoted Fortis Healthcare and Malaysia''s sovereign fund Khazanah.

Fortis and Khazanah are the largest share holders in the hospital chain with 25.3 per cent and 23.9 per cent stakes, respectively. Khazanah wants to increase its stake in Parkway to 51.5 percent from the present 23.9 percent and has launched a partial cash offer of 3.78 Singapore dollar a share, thus triggering a takeover battle with Fortis.



Fortis had in March had acquired 23.9 percent stake in Parkway for USD 685.3 million (nearly Rs 3,100 crore) from the US investment firm TPG. Following the acquisition, Fortis became the largest shareholder in Parkway and wrested management control with Fortis chairman Malvinder Singh as its chairman.