NEW DELHI: In a fresh blow to former Ranbaxy promoters -- Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh -- the Supreme Court on Thursday sentenced six months jail in a contempt case for concealing information about wrongdoing at Ranbaxy during its sale of a majority stake to Daiichi Sankyo.
The apex court also refused to revoke a stay on the open offer by Malaysia’s IHH Healthcare Berhard for a 26 per cent stake in Fortis Healthcare, which was once also owned by the Singh brothers. A bench headed by Chief Justice of India UU Lalit also ordered a forensic audit of the Fortis IHH deal and asked the Delhi High Court to decide on the open offer.
The court also imposed a cost of Rs 5000 on the brothers in a plea filed by Japanese Pharma firm Daiichi Sankyo. Malaysia’s IHH bought a 31 per cent controlling stake in Fortis Healthcare for Rs 4,000 crore through the bidding route in 2018. Daiichi Sankyo had challenged the Fortis-IHH deal to recover the Rs 3,600 crore arbitration award it had won in a Singapore tribunal against Fortis’ erstwhile promoters.
After the challenge by the Japanese drug maker, the Supreme Court in December 2018 ordered the status quo in the matter, thus stalling the open offer by IHH. The Japanese pharma company acquired Ranbaxy from Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh for USD 4.6 billion in 2008. The shares of Fortis Healthcare took a beating after the order as prices crashed 15 per cent on Thursday.
The stock opened at Rs 318 and fell to a low of Rs 250 during the day before closing at Rs 265. The company in an exchange filing said: “We remain committed to our core purpose of patient care and will continue to focus on our strategic and operational objectives to further strengthen and expand our healthcare network. We will keep all our stakeholders informed, as required.”