The race to acquire the beleaguered Fortis Healthcare Limited (FHL) came to end early hours on Friday with the company’s board approving the ₹4,000-crore bid of Malaysia-based IHH Healthcare Berhad.

“Proposed investment of ₹4,000 crore offers a comprehensive equity solution addressing Fortis’ liquidity requirements, obligations towards RHT acquisition and providing an exit to private equity investors of SRL,” Fortis said in an early morning statement filed with the stock exchanges.

Outlining the rationale behind the decision, Fortis CEO Bhavdeep Singh said: “It [the IHH bid] was higher compared to [that of] the Manipal-TPG consortium. It was also a simple transaction structure. Hence, we can consummate the deal in lesser time.”

The Malaysian company will now acquire a stake in Fortis through a preferential allotment at ₹170 per share. IHH will get a “majority hold” on the boards of Fortis Healthcare and SRL once the deal is concluded. However, the number of seats is yet to be finalised.

The process to find a buyer that lasted over a year also saw many a controversies. Some bidders dropped out midway, like the Hero-Burman consortium, and the KKR-Radiant combine, which did not submit fresh bids after an investigation suggested mismanagement of funds of up to ₹494 crore by Fortis’ promoter brothers Shivinder and Malvinder Singh.

They had refused to participate in the process claiming the brothers’ ways of operating were opaque.

At a media call after the decision was announced, when Bhavdeep Singh was asked if the results of the ongoing investigations by SEBI and the Serious Fraud Investigation Office could have a bearing on the deal with IHH, he said: “The deal is independent of the investigations. IHH cannot unilaterally exit the deal. SEBI and SFIO investigation outcomes may take 50-90 days. There is no connection between the inter-corporate deposits in question and the deal or the audit findings.”

IHH’s proposal provides for refinance of debt of ₹2,500 crore.

Separately, in a filing to the BSE, Northern TK Venture Pte Ltd along with IHH Healthcare Bhd and Parkway Pantai Limited, made an open offer to shareholders of Fortis Malar to acquire up to 48.94 lakh shares of face value of ₹10 at ₹58/share, representing 26 per cent of the voting share capital. They also made an open offer to acquire up to 19.70 crore shares of Fortis Healthcare of face value of ₹10 each representing 26 per cent of the expanded voting share capital at ₹170 per share.