Singh Brothers File Stay Plea On Rs 3,500-Crore Arbitral Award Payment
Delhi High Court orders valuation of all Singh brothers’ disclosed unencumbered assets by next hearing.
Fortis Healthcare Ltd. founders Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh today moved a stay plea in the Delhi High Court over payment of the Rs 3,500 crore arbitral award that Japan’s Daiichi Sankyo won against them for hiding information while selling Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd.
The counsel for the billionaire Singh brothers argued that the award is under challenge at the Singapore Court of Appeals, and until that appeal is decided they are not liable to pay up.
The court did not pass an order on the stay application, but ordered that a chartered accountant be appointed for valuation of all disclosed unencumbered assets – barring bank accounts – of the Singh brothers. The valuation exercise needs to be completed before the next date of hearing on May 14.
Last month, the Delhi High Court had ordered attaching all unencumbered assets of RHC Holdings Pvt. and Oscar Investments Pvt., the two holding companies of the Singh brothers, to execute the Rs 3,500-crore arbitral award
Daiichi won the arbitral award at the Singapore tribunal, which stemmed from Ranbaxy’s $500-million settlement with the U.S. drug regulator for falsification data and lack of proper manufacturing standards. The Japanese drugmaker claimed that the Singh brothers, then promoters of Ranbaxy, had kept it in the dark about these issues. Daiichi later sold the company to Sun Pharmaceuticals Ltd. in 2014 for $3.2 billion compared with $4.6 billion it had paid to acquire the drugmaker in 2008.
The Supreme Court earlier rejected a plea by the brothers challenging the Delhi High Court order holding that the arbitral award was enforceable in India. That came amid allegations that Singh brothers were siphoning funds from Fortis Healthcare Ltd., India’s second largest hospital chain, and their financial services arm Religare Enterprises Ltd.