The Sindh High Court has barred Quice Food Industries Limited from taking any further steps to implement its proposed merger with Indus Food Products Limited, following a petition filed by shareholders holding a combined 26.87 percent stake in the company.

The interim order was issued in Judicial Companies Miscellaneous No. 43 of 2026, where the petitioners challenged the validity of the merger approval process.

The dispute relates to an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) held on June 23, 2026, after which Quice Food Industries announced that its shareholders had approved the merger.

The petitioners contend that the transaction does not satisfy the requirements of Section 279(2) of the Companies Act, 2017, which requires approval from at least 75 percent of the company’s members for a merger scheme. They argued that since shareholders representing more than 26 percent of the company opposed the proposal, the statutory threshold could not have been met.

The shareholders further alleged that they were denied the opportunity to vote during the meeting and were unlawfully excluded from the decision-making process, calling into question the legitimacy of the approval.

The proposed merger has already faced legal scrutiny. In an earlier case, Judicial Companies Miscellaneous No. 29 of 2026, another group of shareholders challenged the share-swap ratio approved by Quice Food Industries’ board and raised concerns over the lack of transparency surrounding the financial position of Indus Food Products.

Following the latest order, Quice Food Industries cannot proceed with the merger until the Sindh High Court decides the matter.