ADVERTISEMENT

Daiichi Wins Plea To Enforce Rs 3,500-Crore Arbitral Award Against Singh Brothers

Delhi High Court allows the enforcement of Daiichi’s Rs 3,500-crore arbitral award against Singh brothers.

Malvinder Mohan Singh, chairman of Religare Enterprises Ltd. (Photographer: Prashanth Vishwanathan/Bloomberg)
Malvinder Mohan Singh, chairman of Religare Enterprises Ltd. (Photographer: Prashanth Vishwanathan/Bloomberg)

The Delhi High Court ruled that the Rs 3,500-crore arbitration award that Daiichi Sankyo won against billionaire Singh brothers for concealing information about erstwhile Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. is enforceable in India.

In a partial relief, the Delhi High Court has held that while the arbitral award is enforceable against the Singh brothers, it will not be enforceable against their children.

Daiichi Sankyo had filed the petition to enforce the arbitral award it had won in 2016 in the Singapore tribunal. The Japanese drugmaker had argued that Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh concealed important information while selling Ranbaxy in 2008. The generic company in 2013 pleaded guilty in the U.S. to charges of distributing adulterated medicines and falsifying data. It had to pay Rs 3,500 crore. Sun Pharmaceuticals Ltd. later acquired the company from Daiichi.

The high court said Daiichi can claim the amount from the Singh brothers and their companies but not from their children, who were also named in the suit filed by Daiichi.

The Singh brothers had argued in the Delhi High Court that the arbitral award was not enforceable under the Indian law. They have separately challenged the award in the Court of Appeal of Singapore.

“We are disappointed with the ruling,” a spokesman for RHC Holding Pvt., the Singh brothers’ main holding company, said in an emailed statement. Further course of action will be decided after studying the order in detail, he said. The court’s decision that the award won’t be enforceable against the children was a “partial success,” the spokesman said.

Separately, the Supreme Court had also barred the Singh brothers from selling any of their encumbered or unencumbered assets in Fortis Healthcare in another petition filed by Daiichi.

Shares of Fortis Healthcare today dropped 7.3 percent immediately after the judgement but pared some gains by the end of trade.

The Delhi High Court order does not have “any ad-interim or interim order passed against or in favour of the company,” Fortis said in an emailed statement. "Any outcome of the proceedings are reasonably expected to have no direct impact on the company or its operations,” the statement added.