India's Fortis Healthcare pulls out of amalgamation scheme with Fortis Malar, SRL

Fortis Healthcare Ltd on Wednesday withdrew the scheme of arrangement and amalgamation with its units Fortis Malar Hospitals Ltd and SRL Ltd, citing a delay in its completion.

The scheme could not be completed even after 19 months due to reasons beyond the company's control, Fortis Healthcare said in a statement late on Wednesday.

Fortis Malar runs a superspeciality hospital in Chennai while SRL operates a chain of pathology clinics.

Given the headwinds in the sector and less-than-optimum performance of the diagnostics business during the period of delay, the scheme may not result in optimum value for shareholders, Fortis added.

The cash-strapped hospitals operator, which has become the target of a bidding war, earlier this month said it would look at a new round of bids from four local and international parties and fixed June 14 as the last day for the submission.

(Reporting by Vishal Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sunil Nair)