Religare Enterprises isn’t quite sure what it is, or what it wants to become. It has flipped and flopped during its short life, shifting course and strategy in search of cohesion and long-term profit. So far, both remain elusive.
That’s not for want of trying. In 2008 the Indian brothers Malvinder and Shivinder Singh cashed in their chips at pharmaceuticals giant Ranbaxy Laboratories, selling out to Japan’s Daiichi Sankyo for $8 billion. Casting around for a new venture, they opted for two unusual bedfellows: healthcare and financial services.
And so the Singhs built up two new firms, Fortis Healthcare and Religare Enterprises: the former building and buying upscale hospitals in India and Singapore; the latter venturing into everything from wealth...
