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Wockhardt Ltd. taken to NCLT by Morepen Laboratories for Outstanding dues.
An India-based pharmaceutical company, Morepen Laboratories ltd. has approached the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for the recovery of the amount is owed by Wockhardt Ltd. the money was lent to Wockhardt Ltd in order to manufacture certain medicines for Morepen Laboratories Ltd. on a contract.
Wockhardt ltd. is a global pharmaceutical and biotechnology company which is headquarted in Mumbai. The company’s liabilities had been increasing since the past three years. The trade payables of the company were recorded to be Rs. 800 crore as on March 31, 2019.
According to the petition filed before the Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal, Morepen Laboratories ltd had lent a total of Rs. 1.55 crore to Wockhardt ltd. including interest under a contract to manufacture medicines for the latter. The invoices were issued by Morepen Lab between July 2018 and May 2019.
Morepen further stated in its petition that even after many formal communications for example, through emails and telephonic conversations, Wockhardt had not repaid the outstanding amount. It was after a legal notice was sent to Wockhardt by Morepen Lab in June 2019, that Wockhardt had given an oral assurance that it would pay the total amount soon.
The company however, did not pay even after that which compelled Morepen Lab to withdraw its first legal notice and issue a second notice. Even after the second notice, Wockhardt became unresponsive and did not pay the dues.
It is not clear as to how much exactly does Wockhardt owes Morepen Lab ltd. this query was ignored by Wockhardt ltd when asked by the media and went unanswered by Morepen Lab ltd as well. However, the current running account maintained by the operational creditors shows an amount of Rs. 1,54,84,319 crore as operational debt.
Wockhardt owes a total of Rs. 840.24 crore as trade payables in small, micro and medium enterprises at the end of 2018-19 financial year. In the financial year, the company’s trade payables were Rs. 533.81 crore.
