New Delhi, Sep 19 (IANS) Fortis Healthcare will buy its overseas sister arm Fortis Healthcare International in an all-cash deal in a move to bring all the group's healthcare businesses under one firm, Fortis Group Chairman Malvinder Mohan Singh said Monday.

"The transaction will be done by December. The terms of the deal will be set by independent valuers," Singh said at a press conference here.

He said the board of directors of Fortis Healthcare (India) Ltd, at its meeting held Monday, approved the acquisition of Fortis Healthcare International from RHC Financial Services (Mauritius) Ltd.

On acquisition of the overseas arm Fortis Healthcare (India) Ltd will be renamed Fortis Healthcare Ltd. "We are focused about growing and creating value to the shareholders," Singh said.

He said clubbing the business of two entities would create economies of scale and double the overall business and capability of the firm.

"If you club the two entities, you really double the business and the size and scale, and the capability," Singh said at the press conference after the company's board meeting.

Both Fortis Healthcare (India) Ltd and Fortis Healthcare International target nearly $500 million revenue during the current financial year.

The share price of Fortis Healthcare (India) Ltd slipped into the red after surging more than five percent in the morning trade.

Under the consolidation, the firm will form a large healthcare delivery network in the Asia-Pacific region.

The network will have over 74 hospitals with more than 12,000 beds, 580 primary care centres, 188 day-care speciality centres, 190 diagnostic centres and more than 23,000 employees, with a strength of over 4,000 doctors, making it among the largest integrated healthcare delivery networks in Asia-Pacific.

The combined entity will benefit from size and scale while leveraging its network across various countries with wider delivery capabilities, the company said.

The new structure of the combined entity will be aligned to manage the global business of Fortis Healthcare, including those in India.

Malvinder Mohan Singh will be the executive chairman of Fortis Healthcare while Aditya Vij will head the Indian operations as its India chief executive officer.

Fortis Healthcare International owns Quality Healthcare Ltd, the largest primary care network in Hong Kong with 580 centers; Dental Corporation Pty Ltd the largest dental care network in Australia and New Zealand with 174 centers; Fortis Speciality Hospital, an under construction specialty hospital in Singapore; a stake in a 350-bed Lanka Hospitals Corporation,Sri Lanka's largest super speciality hospital, and the largest private pathology laboratory in the UAE.

"Our combined entity will leverage competitive strengths and realize synergies to benefit all the operations, especially leveraging the group's enormous talent in healthcare," Shivinder Mohan Singh, Managing Director of Fortis Healthcare India.

"This will further accelerate Fortis' growth in the entire region and will help create a premier healthcare services network in pan Asia-Pacific region," he said.