Rs 3,500-cr fine on Singh bros, not Rs 2,562 cr: Daiichi

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A day after news broke that former Ranbaxy owners Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Mohan Singh had been fined Rs 2,562 crore by an arbitration court in Singapore for concealing facts from Daiichi Sankyo, the Japanese pharma major has put the damages at around Rs 3,500 crore.

The amount of 56.2 billion Japanese yen (Rs 3,500 crore) includes interest cost, lawyers' fee and amount incurred by Daiichi Sankyo in the arbitration process, according to a statement issued by the Japanese company on Friday. The Rs 2,562 crore figure, presented by the Singh brothers on Thursday, excluded these three costs.

The judgment was pronounced by an arbitration court in Singapore on April 29. Daiichi said former shareholders of Ranbaxy have to pay Rs 851.06 crore as interest, Rs 96.81 crore as lawyers' fee and Rs 3.98 crore as compensation of arbitration costs.

Daiichi had launched the arbitration proceedings in 2013, alleging that Singh brothers had concealed and misrepresented critical information concerning US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Department of Justice (DoJ) investigations into Ranbaxy in 2008 when the Japanese company acquired controlling stake in the company. "The total amount of award is approximately 56.2 billion Japanese yen (conversion rate; 1 rupee = 1.6 yen, 1 dollar = 107 yen)," stated Daiichi Sankyo. This translates to around Rs 3,510 crore, which would keep increasing if the payment gets delayed. The Singh brothers' spokesperson did not respond to the queries sent by Business Standard. Even as Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Mohan Singh, owners of the Fortis group, are contemplating to appeal against the fine imposed by Singapore arbitration court, their listed companies' stocks showed mixed signals on Friday. Religare Enterprises saw its share price increase 1.44 per cent to Rs 277.95. Fortis Healthcare saw its share price decrease 1.85 per cent to Rs 167.05.