KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 19): IHH Healthcare Bhd’s (KL:IHH) Singapore unit has moved to block Daiichi Sankyo Co Ltd from obstructing the acquisition of shares and any other investment and corporate exercises in India-based healthcare group Fortis Healthcare Ltd and its subsidiary Malar Hospitals Ltd by making defamatory statements to India’s capital market regulator and the public at large.
This comes as IHH’s unit, Northern TK Venture (NTK), amends its injunctive claim in an ongoing legal dispute with Daiichi Sankyo following IHH’s completion of its mandatory open offer for Fortis and Malar in November last year, according to a bourse filing on Thursday.
The injunctive claim previously sought to block Daiichi Sankyo from obstructing the open offer and making defamatory statements against NTK. Its near ¥200 billion (RM5.7 billion) claim for loss against Daiichi Sankyo remains unchanged.
The dispute pertains to Daiichi Sankyo previously blocking the offer since 2018, stemming from a separate legal dispute with the founders of Fortis group, Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh.
The Japanese pharmaceutical giant obtained a court order to maintain the status quo at Fortis pending the dispute with the Singh brothers over a decade-old acquisition of an Indian drugmaker, Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd.
In October last year, India’s Securities and Exchange Board approved the open offer to proceed.
The offer of up to an additional 26% stake each in Fortis and Malar closed in November last year with a tepid response. Only 778 shares — equivalent to a 0.0002% stake — in Fortis were tendered, while only 4,523 shares in Malar, or 0.02%, were accepted.
The mandatory open offer was triggered after IHH stepped in as a white knight in Fortis with a RM2.4 billion subscription for a 31.1% stake in 2018. Fortis, which holds 62.4% of Malar, in turn operates healthcare facilities in the southern Indian city of Chennai.
Shares in IHH ended nine sen or 1.02% higher at RM8.91 on Thursday, valuing the group at RM78.73 billion.