UPL has announced that the District Court in Delaware in AgroFresh has substantially reduced the earlier October 2019 jury verdict of $31 million to $13 million by its judgement of November 30, 2020. 

 

The court has also vacated a number of the Jury's determination on key counts. This litigation relates to an ongoing intellectual property litigation regarding TruPick, a 1-MCP product launched by the post-harvest business of UPL in the US in 2016.

 

The company has already made a provision for the full $31 million jury award in the FY 2019-20. UPL is presently considering its options, including potential appeal of any judgment that arises based on the adverse portions of the jury verdict that remain.

 

In October 2019, the Indian chemical giant UPL was ordered to pay $31 mn to US-based AgroFresh in patent infringement case. The company was defeated in court by a small Philadelphia agrotech company that sued it for stealing its main trade secret — and the expert it hired to develop it.

A federal jury in Wilmington, Delaware, told UPL and its Decco unit to pay AgroFresh Solutions Inc. $31 million partly for infringing its patent on a technology that keeps apples fresh in storage after harvest. The award was less than a tenth of the $346.2 million AgroFresh had asked for.

In a separate development, UPL reccently announced its decision to redeem notes early. In light of the strong performance in the first half and business prospects of the second half driven by favorable agronomic conditions and strong agri-commodity prices, UPL Group has decided to redeem the Notes early from the cash in hand and de-leverage the balance sheet, stated the company in a filing to stock exchanges.

Accordingly, UPL Corporation Limited (the Issuer), a subsidiary of the company, has issued notice to redeem US $410MM aggregate principal amount outstanding of its US $500MM 3.25% Senior Notes due in October 2021.

The Notes will be redeemed on December 28, 2020 from its cash on hand. The redemption price will be determined on the third business day preceding the Redemption Date.