IDH wants to table a new offer for Islamabad Diagnostic Center amid economic woes in Pakistan: IDH is looking to renegotiate terms of its bid to acquire a major stake in one of Pakistan's largest diagnostics providers due to economic and political turbulence in the country, a company official told us yesterday.

IDH wants IDC: The LSE- and EGX-listed consumer healthcare firm in December signed a share purchase agreement that would have seen it acquire 50% of the Islamabad Diagnostic Centre (IDC) at a cost of USD 72.35 mn. The seller was UAE-based Evercare Group, a healthcare platform managed by global private equity firm TPG and backed by its Rise Fund, which owns 100% of the Pakistani outfit through a special purpose vehicle. The transaction would have given IDH more than 80 labs across Pakistan.

The long-stop date for the acquisition had already expired: IDH told Evercare in late August that it was terminating the SPA after conditions precedent weren’t met; the deadline for execution of the transaction had already been extended by three months, IDH said in disclosures to the EGX (pdf) and the London Stock Exchange yesterday.

IDH is still interested: The company is in ongoing talks with Evercare and is ready to sign a new share purchase agreement, it said in the filings. “We’re not pulling the plug, we’re renegotiating the terms in light of the recent developments in Pakistan,” IR chief Nancy Fahmy told us yesterday, adding that IDH is still “very interested” in the company.

A lot has changed in Pakistan in the past nine months: The removal of former prime minister Imran Khan has provoked a political crisis, economic headwinds have forced it to turn to the IMF to avert debt default, and devastating floods have left a third of the country underwater.

Market reacts: EGX-listed shares remained unchanged at EGP 16.50, while LSE-listed shares fell some 2.2% to USD 0.80.