The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered maintenance of status quo with regard to the sale of controlling stake in Fortis Healthcare to Malaysia's IHH Healthcare Berhard.
The top court has also passed the case on to the Delhi High Court and asked it consider directing a forensic audit on the IHH deal to analyse whether the transactions entered into by the banks and financial institutions with respect to the money lent to Malvinder and Shivinder Singh, who were brothers were Bonafide.
Shares of Fortis Healthcare ended Thursday's session on BSE with losses of 14.95 percent at Rs 264.80 apiece, after falling as much as 20% earlier in the session.
A bench led by Justice UU Lalit said that the matter of stake sale has been sent to the high court since it has already been hearing the matter.
In 2018, Malaysia’s IHH Healthcare purchased a controlling 31 % in Fortis, which prompted a mandatory open offer to purchase an additional 26 % of Fortis shares from the market. In an auction that was supervised by an independent board, it had paid $1.1 billion to purchase a stake in Fortis Healthcare in August 2018.
It was through an auction that was supervised by an independent board, it had paid $1.1 billion to purchase a stake in Fortis Healthcare in August 2018.
The apex court, however, had put a status quo on Fortis Healthcare’s stake sale to the Malaysian healthcare firm in 2018.
More important, the Supreme Court had blocked the open offer on a petition filed by Japanese Drug maker Daiichi Sankyo, which had tried to enforce a Rs 3,500 crore arbitration award that was won against Fortis’ former promoters Singh brothers in the Singapore International Arbitration Centre.
In a lawsuit filed against the Singh brothers, Daiichi Sankyo claimed that notwithstanding the Supreme Court’s prohibition, the Singh brothers had pledged 1.7 million shares of Fortis Healthcare held by Fortis Healthcare Holding.
The duo was ordered to pay Daiichi about Rs 2,563 crore in damages, plus interest of 4.44 % annually from 7 November 7, to the date of the decision by an arbitration tribunal in Singapore in April 2016.
