Make plan by February 24 to pay Daiichi Sankyo, Supreme Court to Singh brothers

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday asked former Ranbaxy Laboratories promoters Malvinder and Shivinder Singh to come up with a concrete schedule by February 24 to pay the money they owe Japanese drug maker Daiichi Sankyo under an arbitration award.The top court did not lift the status quo order on Malaysia-based IHH Healthcare’s open offer to the shareholders of Fortis Healthcare, which too was controlled by the Singh brothers.Daiichi had won the arbitration award on its claim that the Singhs had concealed material information when they sold Ranbaxy to it in 2008. Daiichi has opposed the IHH-Fortis deal, claiming in the top court that the change in control of the local hospital chain was orchestrated by the brothers to avoid paying the arbitration award, which including interest is about Rs 3,500 crore. SC, which allowed Malvinder and Shivinder Singh to meet their family and lawyers to help raise the funds, will now hear the case on March 16. The brothers are currently in jail after being arrested in an alleged forgery case.The open offer, which was to be held originally between December 18, 2018, and January 1, 2019, could not be carried out because of the status quo ordered by the court. Market regulator Sebi had urged the court to allow the open offer.On Monday, the court allowed the regulator, through standing counsel Pratap Venugopal, and a minority shareholder to intervene in the case. It allowed also Daiichi and Fortis to place their views on the Sebi plea.A SC bench, comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose, said it would focus on recovering the money due to Daiichi for now.

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/2uhWtWT