India’s leading healthcare service provider, Fortis Healthcare Limited has announced that the Company is exploring possibilities of Joint Venture (JV) with Emaar MGF Land Limited, for setting up of Hospitals.  

Fortis Healthcare, India was established in 1996 by the promoters of Ranbaxy Laboratories, among the world's top 10 generic companies. The company is India's largest pharmaceutical company. The company operates multi-specialty hospitals in the country, which provide secondary and tertiary healthcare to patients. The company also operates Fortis La Femme, a boutique style hospital that focuses on women’s health and maternity care.

While, Emaar is one of the world's leading real estate companies with operations in 16 countries. MGF has over the last 10 years established itself as one of the key players in retail real estate development in Northern India. The company is a joint venture between Emaar Properties of Dubai and MGF Development Ltd of India.

Emaar MGF has announced that it will soon launch an initial public offering (IPO) to raise up to USD 1.5 billion for investment in the country's booming real estate sector, for which it has already received SEBI approval.

The company filed a draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with SEBI in September last year for selling a 10% stake (11.74 crore shares) in the company to the public through the IPO.

The company would use IPO proceeds for its land and development rights, development and construction costs, repayment of loans and general corporate purposes. The issue is likely to hit the capital market in the first week of February.2008. The listing of the shares of the company is expected by February-end.

The global coordinators and book running lead managers to the issue are Enam Securities and DSP Merrill Lynch.

The stock of Fortis Healthcare closed on Friday at Rs. 99.65 on NSE, down by 0.35% compared with previous close of Rs. 100. It touched an intraday high of Rs.102.45 and low of Rs. 97.00.