Fortis founder Shivinder drags brother Malvinder to NCLT over mismanagement

Former Ranbaxy Laboratories promoter and Founder of Fortis Healthcare Shivinder Mohan Singh has filed a case in the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) against elder brother Malvinder Mohan Singh and former Religare Enterprises chairman and managing director Sunil Godhwani, for “oppression and mismanagement of RHC Holding, Religare and Fortis”, media reports said on Wednesday.

“The collective, ongoing, actions of Malvinder and Sunil Godhwani led to a systematic undermining of the interests of the companies and their shareholders mentioned above as also the committed and loyal employees of the group,” Shivinder alleged in a statement, according to media reports. The case was filed in the NCLT on Tuesday.

In the statement, Shivinder said the action was long overdue but got delayed in the hope that “better sense shall eventually prevail and another ugly chapter of family feud would not be written in our family business’ glorious history”.

Shivinder said that while he had been supportive of Malvinder's chairmanship of the group, his focus and passion had always been Fortis. He said it was the only company he had worked for before taking public retirement to his spiritual home, Beas to serve his master in 2015, “leaving the thriving company I founded in ‘trusted’ hands and in a period of less than two years, it has moved towards disintegration and ruin of a national healthcare asset”.

“My family reputation kept me a silent spectator, as I mutely watched the organisation I founded come to a point where it was publicly auctioned; where my family and myself have been stripped of our legacy, our finances and my personal credibility,” he said in the statement.

He also defended the family’s spiritual guru. “Recent planted media articles attempting to foist the responsibility of poor decisions taken, to an elder in the family who always stood by us as a father-figure ever since the premature demise of our father; has compelled me to break my silence. Attempts to pass the buck to an eminent figure, who has been a guiding light not only to our family but also to a large section of the public, deceives no one,” the statement said.

Shivinder concludes the statement by saying that while he wishes his brother well, he can “no longer be party to activities in which transparency and ethics are continuously and consistently negated”.

The Singh brothers inherited Ranbaxy, a multi-billion dollar pharma company, which they sold to Japanese firm Daiichi Sankyo to focus on hospital chain Fortis and financial services firm Religare. Fortis was recently acquired by Malaysian healthcare major IHH Healthcare BHD, while Religare now has multiple shareholders. The two companies are also being investigated by various agencies for alleged financial improprieties.