PE firm Olympus to sell up to $235 million stake in India's Aster DM, term sheet shows

By M. Sriram and Dimpal Gulwani

(Reuters) -Private equity firm Olympus Capital Asia plans to sell a 9.8% stake in India's Aster DM Healthcare for up to 19.53 billion rupees (nearly $235 million), according to a term sheet seen by Reuters on Tuesday.

Olympus Capital, which owns about 19% stake in the hospital chain, is planning the sale at 400-437.20 rupees per share. The low end of the range represents an 8.5% discount to the Aster DM stock's last close and no discount at the upper range.

Aster DM and Olympus did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

Reuters had reported in May that investors in Aster DM are in talks to sell a 30% stake in the company's India business for about $300 million, with Olympus Capital pegged to be one of the shareholders considering a stake sale.

Kotak Securities will act as the sole bookrunner for the stake sale, according to the term sheet.

Shares of the company, which runs 34 hospitals, 130 clinics and 508 pharmacies in India and the Gulf Cooperation Council, closed down 0.3% at 437.20 rupees on Tuesday. They have gained about 6.7% so far this year.

Last week, Aster DM said it plans to spend about $108 million to expand domestically, as it also nears completion of selling its Gulf business.

($1 = 83.2970 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Sriram Mani and Dimpal Gulwani; Editing by Savio D'Souza, Eileen Soreng and Maju Samuel)