Linklaters' Singapore JV firm advises on $2.6bn hospital chain buyout

Linklaters' Singapore joint venture firm Allen & Gledhill has taken a lead role on the $2.6bn (£1.7bn) acquisition of Southeast Asia's largest hospital chain by Malaysia's sovereign wealth fund, reports The Am Law Daily.

The bid by a wholly-owned subsidiary of Khazanah Nasional, an investment arm of the Malaysian Government, beat out a $2.3bn (£1.5bn) bid by India's Fortis Healthcare to acquire hospital chain Parkway Holdings.

Khazanah was represented on the deal by Allen & Gledhill, Singapore's largest law firm. M&A co-heads Andrew Lim and Lim Mei led the team, which also included partner Lee Kee Ying. Allen & Gledhill also is advising Deutsche Bank and CIMB Bank Berhad, the financial advisers on the deal.

Parkway was represented on the deal by Andrew Ang and Linda Wee of Singapore-based WongPartnership.

Khazanah initially put forward a partial offer of $835m (£534m) in May in an attempt to increase its stake in Parkway from 23.9% to 51%.

New Delhi-based Fortis, which put forward its offer on 1 July, is set to abandon its bid and sell its stake to the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund.

Fortis was advised on its bid by Lee Suet Fern at Singapore's Stamford Law and Kian Hwee Goh at Rajah & Tann, also in Singapore.

Several of the firms involved in the deal are current or former joint venture partners of international law firms in Singapore. Clifford Chance and WongPartnership ended their joint venture arrangement in November 2008, while Stamford participated in a short-lived joint venture with Shearman & Sterling that ended in 2002.

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