Morepen is seeking to recover around Rs 1.55 crore, along with interest, from Wockhardt for invoices it raised between July 2018 and May 2019 for formulations that it supplied to the company, according to the petition filed with the Mumbai Bench of the NCLT.
Indian drugmaker Morepen Laboratories has approached the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to recover money that Wockhardt owes it for making and supplying medicines for the drugmaker on a contract, The Indian Express has learnt.
Wockhardt’s payables have been on the rise over the last three years, with the company reporting over Rs 800 crore in trade payables at the end of March 31, 2019.
Morepen is seeking to recover around Rs 1.55 crore, along with interest, from Wockhardt for invoices it raised between July 2018 and May 2019 for formulations that it supplied to the company, according to the petition filed with the Mumbai Bench of the NCLT. The Indian Express has reviewed a copy of this petition.
“However, as per the running account duly maintained by the operational creditor, an unpaid operational debt of Rs 1,54,84,319/-…is still outstanding,” Morepen stated in its petition. Despite “several repeated formal communications” through emails and telephonic discussions, Wockhardt has not furnished the overdue amount, it stated.
The petition further states that, following a legal notice issued to Wockhardt in June 2019, the company contacted Morepen and gave “oral assurance” that it would pay up. However, the company “again became reclusive and unresponsive and took no step towards fulfillment of its oral assurance” after Morepen withdrew its first legal notice, causing it to issue a second notice in August.
It is not clear how much Wockhardt owes Morepen including interest. Morepen declined to comment on the issue, stating that the matter was sub-judice, while queries sent to Wockhardt remained unanswered by press time on Monday.
Wockhardt owed a total of Rs 840.24 crore in trade payables to micro, small and medium enterprises and “others” at the end of the 2018-19 financial year, according to its annual report. In the 2016-17 financial year, its trade payables were Rs 533.81 crore.
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