Daiichi Opposes Religare Health Insurance Stake Sale

The high-profile arbitration case between Japanese company Daiichi Sankyo Ltd and former promoters of Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd came up before the Delhi High Court on Monday before Justice Muralidhar.

Senior counsel CA Sundaram, appearing for Daiichi, opposed the potential 80 per cent stake sale of Religare Health Insurance Co Ltd by Malvinder Singh and Shivender Singh, former promoters of Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd.

A private equity firm, True North, is supposedly roped in to buy stake in Religare.

Sundaram also said the Singh brothers had given an assurance that they would not liquidate their unencumbered assets, but made a declaration before the BSE that the stake sale had already happened.

Daiichi’s objection comes in the light of a plea filed by them to restrain Malvinder Singh and Shivender Singh from selling their assets. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal is appearing for the Singh brothers.

A Singapore-based arbitral tribunal had ruled against Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd and the award required Ranbaxy to pay over ₹2,500 crore to Daiichi.

In 2008, Daiichi had bought a majority stake in Ranbaxy for $4.6 billion.

But a few months later, they alleged that certain crucial information was hidden from them during the sale and initiated arbitration proceedings.