Jupiter Hospital, Reliance-backed company in race for Mumbai SevenHills

Mumbai: A Reliance Industries-backed company and Jupiter Hospital are in a battle to acquire privately held SevenHills Healthcare, people with knowledge of the matter told ET. The target is a 1,500-bed hospital that is embroiled in a protracted legal battle with the Mumbai civic body over compensation for the land on which it is built.SevenHills Healthcare, which operates SevenHills Hospital in suburban Mumbai, came into the limelight when superstar Amitabh Bachchan’s granddaughter Aaradhya Bachchan was born there.

NK Holdings, the Reliance-backed company, has filed a resolution plan for SevenHills Healthcare, the people quoted above said.Both bidders have offered around ₹450 crore, but with different payment schedules.

Jupiter has proposed an upfront payment of ₹450 crore within 30 days of bankruptcy court approval, while NK Holdings has offered ₹450 crore payable over five years.

Abhilash Lal, the resolution professional overseeing insolvency proceedings, Jupiter, and Reliance Industries did not respond to ET’s mailed requests for comment.

Wait seven years
Creditors are reviewing both resolution plans for the hospital, which remains unresolved despite being admitted to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in March 2018.

SevenHills originally owned two hospitals: one in Mumbai and one in Visakhapatnam. The bankruptcy court allowed creditors to sell the Visakhapatnam and Mumbai hospitals separately to address delays caused by disputes between the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) and lenders, coupled with the Mumbai hospital being declared a Covid-19 facility under the Disaster Management Act.

In July 2024, NCLT approved a plan by MGM Healthcare to acquire Visakhapatnam Hospital for ₹171 crore.

MCGM, which owns the land on which the Mumbai hospital is built, has filed a claim of ₹140.8 crore as unpaid rent. This claim will not be recognized by the RP until March 2023. The RP has not provided an updated claims list to the regulator, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI).

In July 2019, the NCLT approved a ₹1,000 crore resolution plan by Dr. Shetty’s New Medical Center (NMC), but the plan was challenged by MCGM in the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal. The court of appeal denied MCGM’s request. However, in November 2019, the Supreme Court quashed both the tribunal’s orders.

Lenders blame MCGM’s turnaround for delays, saying it initially agreed to NMC’s offer of ₹102 crore and a promise to reserve 20% of beds at the Mumbai hospital for economically disadvantaged patients. Later, MCGM turned down the offer, arguing before the Supreme Court that it was not obliged to accept a resolution plan even if approved by the tribunal as it had issued a notice to terminate the lease before admitting the company for insolvency.

Post-Covid, the RP restarted the process by inviting offers in 2023. Several hospital chains, including Max Healthcare, KIMS Hospital and Virinchi Hospital, had shown interest in acquiring SevenHills, ET reported on February 17, 2023.

The outstanding claim of lenders for the Mumbai hospital is not known as the RP did not update the list of verified creditors after the Visakhapatnam Hospital was sold in 2024.

The last updated admitted claims for both hospitals, as of March 31, 2023, stood at ₹1,361 crore, including ₹1,273 crore from financial creditors. JM Financial ARC is the largest debtor with a share of more than 75%.