AFC Health seeks conditional consent to revive IPO

AFC Health Limited has requested the securities regulator to issue conditional consent for an initial public offering (IPO), which was suspended due to the company's dispute with India-based Fortis Healthcare Limited.

The healthcare facility provider sent a letter regarding this issue to the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) on 1 May.

Fortis Healthcare Limited provides various surgery and management services to AFC Health.

About the dispute, the AFC letter said through various correspondence between AFC Health and Forties Healthcare has corrected their stance on the total outstanding payable by AFC Health. The two parties also agreed to sign a no-claim agreement after completion of the payment. The final dues stand at Rs2.81 crore. AFC Health has agreed to pay the dues after getting regulatory approval.

In the letter, the company said AFC Health moved into the healthcare frontline sector by introducing three hospitals in Khulna, Chattogram and Cumilla. It was the first initiative by a local corporation to support healthcare outside Dhaka city.

Earlier on 13 October 2020, Fortis requested the BSEC to cancel the IPO of AFC Health saying that the IPO prospectus contained several false and fraudulent representations and statements.

The BSEC approved the IPO of AFC Health on 16 September 2020 to raise Tk17 crore.

Fortis told the BSEC that the agreement executed by AFC was limited to Khulna and Chattogram only, but AFC Health used their brand names in Cumilla and Jashore, which was a breach of their agreement.

They said in the letter that there had been several payment defaults by AFC since 2017 due to which the entity had been inoperative since 2018.

Rev: Moin