New Delhi: The Delhi high court on Monday directed Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh, former promoters of Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd, to furnish within a week details of all of their unencumbered assets, in order to ensure the use of such assets to satisfy an arbitral award of over Rs2,562 crore, at a later stage, if required.
Justice S. Muralidhar also asked the Singh brothers to approach the court in the event of any alteration (dilution/sale) in the status of these assets.
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The court further directed the chartered accountants of RHC Holding Pvt. Ltd, a firm in which the Singh brothers have significant shareholding, and its subsidiary companies to submit within two weeks certificates disclosing the book and market value of all unencumbered assets. The firms must also indicate instances where these assets included investments by way of equity or preference shareholding.
“In the affidavit submitted by them, there is no disclosure regarding movable and immovable assets. There are assets in the form of investment in shares of related companies. All information regarding unencumbered assets must be disclosed and not only those relating to loans and advances,” C.A. Sundaram, counsel for Daiichi Sankyo submitted.
On 23 January, the court had asked the Singh brothers to file an affidavit disclosing the value of unencumbered shareholding in various entities, which was found to be inconsistent in its disclosure of the unencumbered assets by the court during the hearing.
The court was responding to an application by Daiichi Sankyo seeking to restrain the Singh brothers from selling assets, specifically Fortis Healthcare Ltd. The firm said the Singh brothers were looking to get an investor in Fortis Healthcare and the sale would dilute assets and hamper recovery of damages from them.
The case relates to enforcement of an arbitral award in proceedings initiated by Daiichi Sankyo against the Singh brothers in relation to its 2008 purchase of a majority stake in Ranbaxy, then owned by the brothers.The original arbitral award came after the Japanese company alleged that the Singh brothers had concealed crucial information while selling Ranbaxy to it for $4.6 billion in 2008.
In response, a Singapore tribunal had ordered the brothers to pay Rs2,562 crore. The Singh brothers are contesting the ruling in the Delhi High Court.
The case will be heard next on 20 March.
