The Supreme Court will likely pronounce its verdict on the IHH open offer for Fortis on September 22, CNBC-TV18 reported.
Malaysia's IHH Healthcare had acquired a 31 percent controlling stake in Fortis in 2018, which had triggered a mandatory open offer to acquire another 26 percent of Fortis shares from the market. It had acquired the stake in Fortis Healthcare in August 2018 by paying $1.1 billion in a bidding process overseen by an independent board.
The open offer, however, could not move forward due to ongoing legal proceedings with respect to the transaction based on a plea filed by Daiichi Sankyo.
Japanese drugmaker 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, brothers Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh.
Daiichi Sankyo had moved the plea against the Singh brothers and Indiabulls alleging that the two had pledged 1.7 million shares of Fortis Healthcare held by Fortis Healthcare Holding, despite the apex court forbidding it.
In April 2016, an arbitration tribunal in Singapore had ruled in favour of Daiichi, directing the Singh brothers to pay around Rs 2,563 crore in damages, plus interest of 4.44 percent per year from November 7, 2008, till the date of the award.
The tribunal found the brothers guilty of making false claims in a self-assessment report and of fraudulently misrepresenting and concealing the “genesis, nature and severity of the US regulatory investigations” of Ranbaxy when Daiichi bought their 34.82 percent stake for $ 2.4 billion in 2008.
On February 15, 2018, the Supreme Court had allowed banks and other financial institutions to sell shares of Fortis Healthcare pledged with them by the Singh brothers, on or before August 31. The court had also forbidden the Singh brothers from pledging any more shares in the company from then on.
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