IHH Healthcare’s damages against Daiichi could reach $1.25 billion, expert report says (Feb 6)

(Corrects Feb 6 story throughout to show the damages are according to an expert report, and not estimated by IHH’s unit. The error also appeared in an earlier version of the story.)

(Reuters) -IHH Healthcare said on Thursday its unit submitted an expert report to a Tokyo court which states damages sought from Japan’s Daiichi Sankyo in relation to a stake buy in Fortis Healthcare could be up to 109.3 billion rupees ($1.25 billion).

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

IHH, Asia’s largest healthcare group, had bought a 31% stake in Fortis through NTK, but had to halt its open offer to buy an additional 26% stake after Daiichi filed a contempt plea against Fortis’ founders.

The Malaysian company had initially approached a Tokyo district court in November 2023, seeking Daiichi be ordered to pay 20 billion yen ($131.46 million) as damages to NTK.

IHH said on Thursday that a report by consulting firm Osborne Partners quantified the damages based on three scenarios and pegged the compensation between 4.24 billion rupees and 109.3 billion rupees.

The next hearing at the Tokyo court is now scheduled for February 13, according to a separate statement from IHH.

Fortis, in a filing with India’s National Stock Exchange, did not comment on the issue but said it would update the shareholders in case of any material developments.

Daiichi did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

($1 = 87.5600 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Shivangi Lahiri in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala and Leroy Leo)