Mumbai-based pharmaceutical company Wockhardt said on Friday that Guardian Finance, a non-banking financial company (NBFC) registered with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), has ‘wrongfully’ invoked a pledge of two million shares of the company.
The lender invoked the pledge on July 24 prior to the disbursal of any amount pursuant to the loan agreement and without giving any notice or intimation of any default under the loan or invocation of pledge to the borrowing entities, Wockhardt said in a notification to the stock exchanges. Wockhardt shares ended day’s trade down 1.27 per cent at Rs 241 apiece on BSE.
Some members of the promoter group had pledged certain shares of Wockhardt with Guardian Finance to avail loan. The promoter entities include Humuza Consultants, Lysithea Consultants and Amalthea Consultants.
Wockhardt claimed that there is no default in loan repayment or otherwise under the loan agreement executed between the lender and the borrowers. “How could there be a default on 24th July 2023 when no loan amount was disbursed,” it said in the statement.
Wockhardt said that only a portion of the loan amount was disbursed on July 26, July 27, that is only after the invocation of the pledge. An amount of Rs 7.42 crore was disbursed as against a sanctioned amount of Rs 57 crore.
In view of the above, the concerned promoter entities have initiated various steps seeking clarification for such action and recovery of the wrongfully transferred shares, the company informed the stock exchanges. They are also considering a formal complaint to all relevant regulatory authorities including the RBI for the breach, in addition to all possible remedies and reliefs available to the pledgors under contract and law, the statement said.
Further, Wockhardt said that the promoters of the company are confident that the shares wrongfully transferred by Guardian Finance will soon be reversed back to the original owners.
“Any dealings with these shares would be subject to litigation and prospective purchasers of these shares would be strictly dealt with in accordance with law and contract. The company will provide further updates as and when more definitive development happens on the matter,” it noted.
Wockhardt posted revenues of Rs 2,693 crore for 2022-23, down 17 per cent. The company’s net loss widened to Rs 621 crore in FY23, from Rs 411 crore in the previous year. At present, Wockhardt’s long-term debt is around Rs 490 crore or so, Deepak Madnani, chief financial officer, Wockhardt had told Business Standard earlier this month.
It is charting a turn-around banking on a promising pipeline of novel antibiotics led by a candidate codenamed WCK5222.
Madnani had said that “Post launch of WCK5222, our overall debt will hardly be anything. We had a huge debt earlier of around Rs 3000 crore or so about five years back, and today we have already reduced that. We have achieved a huge debt reduction, and now plan to keep it at this level, because we also have to run our clinical trials for our NCE pipeline.”
Around $20-25 mn is required for completion of third phase trials of WCK5222 – this has been partly tied up and the rest is in process.
