Daljit Singh in Calcutta on Wednesday. A Telegraph picture

Calcutta, Oct. 11: Encouraged by a more than two-fold increase in its revenue to Rs 445 crore in 2005-06 from the previous financial year, Fortis Healthcare Ltd is eyeing a pan-India presence with 40 hospitals having 6,000 beds by 2010. The company now runs 12 hospitals with 1,600 beds in Delhi, Chandigarh, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.

“The company is currently developing three hospitals in Gurgaon (Haryana), Shalimar Bagh (Delhi) and Jaipur. On completion of the first phase of these projects, the total number of beds will go up by 500,” said Daljit Singh, chief executive officer of Fortis Healthcare Ltd, a Ranbaxy group company.

The company aims to partially fund its new projects by raising money through a public issue of 5.67 crore fresh equity shares. It has already filed a draft red herring prospectus with the market regulator and the issue is expected to hit the market by mid-November at the earliest.

Fortis aims to repay Rs 560-crore debt used to finance the buyout of a 90 per cent stake of the Nandas in Escorts Heart Institute & Research Centre last year. Fortis had paid Rs 585 crore in cash for the deal. “Besides, Rs 100 crore of the IPO proceeds will be used to fund the Rs 200-crore hospital project at Shalimar Bagh and another Rs 150 crore will be used for the Jaipur project. Another Rs 70 crore will go towards repaying other debts of the company,” said Pawanpreet Singh, corporate controller, Fortis Healthcare Ltd.

After the public issue, the promoter group’s share in Fortis will come down to 74.5 per cent from 99.2 per cent at present.

Given the amount of money the company is planning to mobilise through the IPO, the price band for the issue is likely to be pegged between Rs 200 and Rs 225 a share.

The Ranbaxy group company aims to attain its growth target by 2010.