Fortis deal: IHH seeks Rs 10,930 crore from Daiichi

NEW DELHI: Malaysia’s IHH Healthcare is seeking up to Rs 10,930 crore ($1.25 billion) in damages from Japan’s Daiichi Sankyo for its involvement in Fortis Healthcare deal, the company said on Thursday.

Northern TK Venture (NTK), a subsidiary of IHH Healthcare, in October 2023 had filed a claim against Daiichi saying it caused losses to the company by preventing it from proceeding with open offers to buy a stake in Fortis Healthcare in 2018.

“The Board of Directors of IHH wishes to announce that NTK has submitted an additional brief on Feb 6, 2025, to the court. NTK has submitted the Feb 6, 2025, brief with an expert report by NTK’s appointed expert, Osborne Partners (“OP”), which includes an analysis and quantification of the damages suffered by NTK based on three counterfactual scenarios had the open offers proceeded,” said IHH Healthcare in a filing on Malaysian exchange.

It added, “Based on OP Report, the amount of compensation being sought by NTK against Daiichi Sankyo ranges from Rs 4.24 billion (about RM 0.2 bn and JPY 7.8 bn at its lowest) to Rs 109.3 billion (RM 5.7 bn and JPY 199.8 billion at its highest), depending on what relevant parameters are applied.”

The upper bound of the damages of Rs 10,930 crore is an increase from the initial figure of JPY 20 billion ($131.46 million) set out in the 14 November 2023 Announcement. In the 6 February 2025 Brief, NTK reserves its rights to amend its claim for damages, including to add other heads of loss and/or to claim the costs of the legal fees it is seeking from Daiichi Sankyo, said IHH.

IHH Healthcare, Asia’s largest healthcare group, had bought a 31% stake in Fortis through NTK but halted its open offer to buy an additional 26% stake after Japanese pharmaceutical giant Daiichi filed a contempt plea against Fortis’ founders - Shivinder Singh and Malvinder Singh.