Fortis stake sale to IHH faces roadblock

In a move that could delay its stake sale to IHH Healthcare, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued a notice to Fortis Healthcare on the proposed transaction and asked the company to file a reply within four weeks.

The court was hearing a plea by Daiichi Sankyo, which has sought a stay on Fortis Healthcare's stake sale to IHH Healthcare.

A single-judge bench of Justice Rajiv Shakhdher also issued a notice to former promoters, Malvinder Mohan Singh and Shivinder Mohan Singh, and asked them to file their replies.

Fortis Healthcare had on Friday said that its board had unanimously accepted a binding offer from Malaysia's IHH Healthcare, which plans to invest Rs 4,000 crore by way of preferential allotment of shares at Rs 170 a share.

The court also directed the Singh brothers not to sell trademarks of the Fortis brand held by them to any other party or transfer and trade the stake they hold in RHC Healthcare Management Services.

On a separate plea by Daiichi Sankyo, the court asked the Singh brothers to disclose their assets and details of bank accounts held outside India as well as the arts, artifacts, paintings and other antiquities. These details should be filed with the court in a sealed cover, it said.

The Delhi High Court had earlier asked the Singh brothers to submit an affidavit disclosing the unencumbered shares held by promoter Fortis Healthcare Holding in Fortis Healthcare as of March 2017. It later asked these shares to be sold and the proceeds be deposited with the court. However, the share sale ran into problems as the court-appointed person was not able to open a de-mat account. The court also issued directions to resolve the issues and asked the share sale to be completed on or before Jul 24. In May 2016 Daiichi Sankyo had approached the high court for the enforcement of a Rs 2,500 award by an arbitration court in Singapore.