Price of Profligacy
The Singh brothers, who made a fortune by selling their prized pharma company Ranbaxy to Japan’s Daiichi Sankyo for Rs 15,000 croreplus in 2008, are perhaps playing out the final act of their once acclaimed business empire. In February, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh against a Delhi High Court order allowing Daiichi Sankyo to recover Rs 3,500 crore from them for fraudulently misrepresenting and concealing the “genesis, nature and severity of the US regulatory investigations”. Daiichi Sankyo alleged that the Singh brothers had concealed crucial information while selling Ranbaxy to them. On December 21, the Singapore High Court upheld an earlier arbitral award passed by a tribunal that the Singh brothers are liable to pay Rs 3,500 crore to Daiichi Sankyo.
Even as the brothers were engaged in a legal battle with Daiichi Sankyo, mistrust grew between them, with Shivinder saying before the National Company Law Tribunal that Malvinder and Sunil Godhwani, the former chief of Religare, colluded to divert Rs 750 crore from Religare Finvest, and another Rs 473 crore from Fortis Healthcare to RHC Holding. Shivinder, who had moved out of the company in 2015 to the Radha Soami Satsang Beas spiritual retreat, alleged mismanagement of the company in his absence, but later withdrew the petition to settle things through mediation. However, things took a turn for the worse, with Malvinder posting a video in December alleging that his brother had manhandled him. Meanwhile, Religare Finvest has lodged a criminal complaint with the Delhi Police against the two brothers, accusing them of cheating, fraud and misappropriation of funds to the tune of Rs 740 crore. The brothers had exited the parent firm, Religare Enterprises, in February 2018.