Govt approves FDI worth Rs 4,000 cr in pharma sector

Torrent Pharmaceuticals' Rs 3,000 crore proposal for increasing FII investment limit to 35 per cent was the biggest in terms of value

Proposals for foreign direct investment amounting to around Rs 4,000 crore (Rs 40 billion) by four pharma and medical devices firms, including Torrent Pharmaceuticals and Biocon's research services arm Syngene, were on Wednesday approved by the government.

The government, however, rejected proposal of drug firm Strides Arcolab to issue shares to non-resident and resident equity shareholders of Shasun Pharmaceuticals and deferred three proposals from other firms.

Ahmedabad-based Torrent Pharmaceuticals' Rs 3,000 crore (Rs 30 billion) proposal for increasing FII investment limit to 35 per cent from 13.09 per cent was the biggest in terms of value approved by the government today based on the recommendations of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) in its meeting held May 28, 2015.

Syngene International's proposal to raise FDI of around Rs 930 crore (Rs 9.3 billion) by hiking foreign investment to 44 per cent from the approved percentage of 10 per cent was the second biggest in the pharma sector approved by the government on Wednesday.

The company plans to raise the sum by way of initial public offering of equity shares to Foreign Institutional Investors, Foreign Portfolio Investments and non-resident Indians.

Approval was also given to FDI of Rs 43.52 crore (Rs 435 million) for Stericat Gut Strings Pvt Ltd as it sought to sell 77.5 per cent stake to Groupe Peters Surgical LLC (22.5 per cent of which would be via share swap), an official statement said.

Ordain Health Care Global Pvt Ltd also got the nod for its FDI proposal of Rs 23.34 crore (Rs 233 million) to purchase certain assets pertaining to Alkems Fertica from Alkem Laboratories Ltd.

The government, however, rejected proposal from Strides Arcolab for issuing shares to non-resident and resident equity shareholders of Shasun Pharmaceuticals Ltd under a scheme of merger.

The other FDI proposals in the pharma sector which were deferred include Celon Laboratories, Shantha Biotechnics and Sparsha Pharma International.