Japanese pharma major Daiichi Sankyo wants markets regulator SEBI to block the ₹15,000-crore merger deal between Fortis Healthcare and Manipal Group, saying it would potentially violate orders issued by courts in India.

Daiichi Sankyo is in the process of attaching the assets of Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh, the promoters of the Fortis Group, to recover the ₹3,500 crore it won on an international arbitration award against the Singh brothers.

“Daiichi Sankyo noted with great concern that Fortis Healthcare has made a public announcement about a deal with Manipal Health Enterprises. Such a transaction will potentially violate various status quo orders issued by the Supreme Court and the Delhi High Court. Daiichi, therefore, requests SEBI to evaluate any likely impact of the transaction involving Fortis and not permit any transaction,” the letter written to SEBI said. BusinessLine has reviewed a copy of the letter.

Daiichi’s concern stems from the fact that the Fortis hospital division comprises key assets that they could seize to recover their money from the Singh brothers. Both Shivender and Malvinder are in a hurry to sell their assets. Meanwhile, a ‘conflict of interest’ angle has also cropped up in the case.

“The son of a senior SEBI official is working with a law firm in Mumbai that represents the Fortis group and it is a clear case of conflict,” a source close to the matter said.

On January 31, the Delhi High Court had upheld a Singapore tribunal’s ruling in favour of Daiichi, which took the Singh siblings to court for concealing matters related to Ranbaxy Laboratories.

The Singhs, previous promoters of Ranbaxy, had sold the Indian pharma company to Daiichi in 2008 for ₹9,576 crore. The duo was accused of withholding the information that Ranbaxy was facing a probe by the American food and drug regulator, US FDA. Daiichi later sold Ranbaxy to Sun Pharmaceuticals Ltd.

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