KUALA LUMPUR: IHH Healthcare Bhd outgoing managing director and chief executive officer Dr Tan See Leng said his departure is timely as the group can now ramp up the business on a stronger position.
Dr Tan, who has been with IHH since April 2010, is instrumental in paving way for the expansion into its home markets including India, which he described as the most time consuming, and recently, China.
“It is a fantastic and spectacular run. At some stage, I have set the entire platform, put it up and set it up in place. We have ironed out and smoothened up the path. The platform today is very robust.
“With all these things that we put up right now, my successor will execute the ramping up. As you know, Fortis Healthcare, for example, we have done all the heavy lifting and smoothened out all the hard knots. The most important thing now is to continue executing the discipline,” he said in a media interview here recently.
“It has been a good run and very intense. But I think I have also been very richly blessed from above. And then the team, this is very testimony to the work that was done by all the management that supported me.
“The company is at its zenith. In spite of that, we are only just at the beginning. It is a good time as any to hand over to someone who is eight or nine years my junior to come in and run the next step,” Dr Tan added.
IHH said Dr Tan, at his own request, would relinquish his duties after his contract of employment expired on December 31.
Dr Tan’s position will be assume by Dr Kelvin Loh, the current CEO for Columbia Asia Group.
Asked if Fortis’ takeover was the most challenging deal that he went through during his tenure, Dr Tan disagreed, but said it was one of the most time consuming deals.
“I do not think it is (the most) challenging. I think it is the most time consuming, definitely. It is transformational. It is a combination of working hard and working smart that we now forged a new platform and this is precisely what we have done.
“In every single deal that we look at, we do not just look at an immediate result – we are looking for long term. Ours is a strategic kind of things. At least during my tenure, it is a very long process in making sure that we are very certain before we went into the acquisition,” he said.
IHH’s mandatory open offer for the remaining 26 per cent stake in Fortis, India’s second largest hospital network, was halted since December last year.
The Supreme Court of India had passed a “status quo” order with regards to the sale of the controlling stake in Fortis Healthcare to IHH Healthcare Bhd be maintained”.
As a result, IHH’s indirect wholly-owned subsidiary, Northern TK Venture (NTK), will not be able to proceed with an open offer for Fortis until further orders, clarifications or directions are issued by either or both of the Indian Supreme Court and the Securities and Exchange Board of India.
IHH now holds 31.1 per cent stake in Fortis through NTK.
Dr Tan said while the issue had brought minimal impact to the group, it hoped it would be resolved before the end of the year.
“The issue of Supreme Court really affects the secondary offer. The secondary offer is the money that goes into the company to buy out all the minority shareholders’ stake.
“My understanding is that the Supreme Court has heard all the debates and all the deliberation and now reserving judgement. Now when the court reconvenes from the vacation on July 1, I am cautiously optimistic that there will be a decision either way.
“If they say go ahead, the money which is already in India in escrow account, will then go out to pay minority shareholders, we will move up to above 50 per cent (stake). It will not change the way we operate,” he explained.
Dr Tan said there was previously a bit of an overhang because of suspension in terms of IHH’s ability to access new line of credit but in a way it had done the turnaround.
“Within just 100 days, the credit rating agency has upgraded our credit rating status to BBB-. On top of that, some of the foreign banks have stepped in to give us new loan lines. I think we are in a much better situation today than we were six months ago,” he added.