Wockhardt scrip received major setback on Friday after the admission of FCCB holder's winding up petition by the High Court, Mumbai. The scrip drifted by 4.1 per cent and closed at Rs.332.95 on BSE with day's lower circuit limits of Rs.312.50. With the admission of petition, the FCCB holders will be in a position to ask the court to appoint a liquidator to take possession of the company's assets. However, Wockhardt has decided to appeal against the petition.
Wockhardt had failed conclude arrangement to pay its FCCB holders $110 million as per terms and went into a corporate debt restructuring process. The petitioner, QVT Financial Lp, a Singapore based hedge fund and an overseas unit of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, holding FCCBs worth US$ 42 million, had filed case against Wockhardt in October 2010. Sun Pharma is holding FCCBs worth $20 million issued by Wockhardt in 2004.
To reduce the debt burden, Wockhardt divested animal health care division to Vetoquinol, France and divested the business of Esparma GmbH to Mova GmbH. As at the end of March 2010 (15 months period), it's total borrowings touched to Rs.4,018 crore and it provided Rs.342 crore for financial cost.
For the nine months ended December 2010, Wockhardts' net sales increased only by 1.7 per cent to Rs.2813 crore from Rs.2766 crore in the similar period of last year. Its net loss reduced to Rs.71.31 crore from Rs.425.30 crore. Its EBDITA worked out to Rs.657.31 crore as against Rs.497.81 crore. It incurred foreign exchange loss of Rs.22.84 crore as against a gain of Rs.22.48 crore in the same period of last year. The loss from the exceptional items reached to Rs.401.09 crore as compared to Rs.641.52 crore in the last period.