Delhi HC tells Singh brothers to honour commitment to secure assets

NEW DELHI: Malvinder and Shivinder Singh, former promoters of Ranbaxy Laboratories, have a week to respond to the Delhi High Court on an application filed by Daiichi Sankyo, which is seeking to block the brothers from selling their assets.

As ET reported on January 17, the Japanese drug maker approached the court fearing that the brothers’ plan to sell stakes in Fortis Healthcare and Religare Finvest could hamper its recovery of over Rs 2,500 crore as part of an arbitration award.

Daiichi and the Singh brothers have been locked in the arbitration case since 2013 over the sale of Ranbaxy, once India's largest drug maker. Daiichi, which bought Ranbaxy for $4.6 billion in 2008 from the Singh brothers, later sold it to India’s Sun Pharmaceutical Industries at a much lower valuation.

A Singapore tribunal last year ordered the brothers to pay Daiichi Sankyo Rs 2,562 crore in damages for concealing information on wrongdoing at Ranbaxy. Daiichi had to face financial loss worth $500 million after Ranbaxy was fined by the US Department of Justice for allegedly making adulterated drugs.