Malaysia’s IHH unit seeks up to 109 billion rupees in damages from Japan’s Daiichi Sankyo

[BENGALURU] IHH Healthcare said on Tuesday (May 20) its unit has filed a petition in a Tokyo court to revise damages sought from Japan’s Daiichi Sankyo over its Fortis Healthcare stake buy to up to 109.3 billion rupees (S$1.7 billion).

Northern TK Venture (NTK) – a subsidiary of IHH – had filed a claim in October 2023 alleging the Japanese drugmaker caused losses to the company by preventing it from proceeding with open offers to buy a stake in the Indian hospital chain in 2018.

IHH, Asia’s largest healthcare operator, had bought a 31 per cent interest in Fortis through NTK, but later halted its open offer to buy an additional 26 per cent after the Japanese company filed a contempt plea against the founders of the Indian company.

The latest petition filed by NTK seeks another 2.7 million rupees for losses arising from the unit’s defamation claim against Daiichi Sankyo and accrued interest on the damages claimed.

An expert report authorised by NTK in February included an analysis and quantification of the damages that NTK suffered based on three scenarios.

The report potentially entitled the unit to damages between 4.24 billion rupees and 109.3 billion rupees.

Malaysia’s IHH had initially approached a Tokyo district court in November 2023, seeking an order directing Daiichi Sankyo to pay 20 billion yen as damages to NTK.

The next hearing is scheduled for Jul 11, IHH said.

Daiichi Sankyo and Fortis did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment. REUTERS