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Stake Sale in Gurgaon-Based Hospital Medanta Medicity by Year-End: Punj Lloyd

New Delhi: Engineering and construction major Punj Lloyd will finalise sale of its stake in Gurgaon-based hospital Medanta Medicity by the end of December, a move aimed at reducing the company's Rs 6,000 crore debt.

Punj Lloyd holds a 17 per cent stake in Global Health Pvt Ltd, the company which owns, manages and operates the hospital.

It plans to sell half the stake in Medanta Medicity, which is a multi-super specialty institute, founded by renowned heart surgeon Naresh Trehan. There have been reports of Singapore's Temasek buying that stake from Punj Lloyd.

"I am aware that we are selling the stake of Medanta, but Temasek buying is news to me," Punj Lloyd managing director and chief executive J P Chalasani told PTI.

The stake sale is likely to be announced by December-end, Mr Chalasani said without divulging further details.

"It will help us in reducing our debt cost which is an important aspect for us ...Rs 6,000 crore is a significant debt for us, some of the things that we are trying to do is non-core asset monetisation," he said.

The company, so far, has an order-book position at Rs 11,000 crore.

"For us our main market is global. That is the reason we are sometimes insulated from the market fluctuations here (India) because its unlikely that all markets simultaneously collapse," Mr Chalasani said.

"So our order-book has always been healthy. This year (2014-15) has been good year. So far its around Rs 11,000 crore except for a Rs 666 crore highway contract every order is from outside and the overall the order backlog is Rs 24,000 crore as on today," he added.

The company is also eyeing opportunities in the upcoming metro projects.

"Order-booking is not a concern for us at this stage, India is now opening up, metro work is picking up in most cities, that is one area we are looking at."