Ranbaxy promoters sell stake to Daiichi Sankyo off-market

The promoters of Ranbaxy Laboratories said on Monday they would off-load their 34.8 per cent stake in the company in favour of Daiichi Sankyo through off-market deal, putting an end to speculations.

The Singh family sold their 22 per cent holding to the Japanese firm, besides issuing 4.62 crore shares on preferential basis.

Daichii Sankyo has already acquired 20 per cent stake in the Gurgaon-based firm, and with today's acquisitions, Ranbaxy has become a subsidiary of the Japanese firm, which would now control 52.5 per cent in the domestic pharma major.

"We have today partly sold our stake (22 per cent) to Daiichi Sankyo. The entire promoter stake selling will take place off-market," Ranbaxy CEO and MD Malvinder Mohan Singh, also a promoter, told PTI.

The remaining 12.8 per cent would also be sold shortly, he said, adding all the shares would be sold at Rs 737 per share.

There had been speculations after Sebi had rejected the company's request for allowing the transaction to be carried out through market with exemptions to save on payment of taxes.

Singh said the transaction tax would be paid by the promoters to the government.

The company's board on Monday approved allotment of equity shares and warrants on a preferential basis and received Rs 3,585 crore (Rs 35.85 billion) from the Japanese firm for the same.

With this (issue of shares and buying a part of the promoter stake along with the shares acquired through open offer), Daiichi Sankyo has acquired 52.5 per cent equity share capital of Ranbaxy comprising 22.06 crore shares.

The board also approved issuing 2.38 lakh warrants to the Japanese pharma firm.

Singh said the domestic firm would continue to operate as an independent and autonomous company and would closely co-operate with Daiichi Sankyo to explore and optimise the growth opportunities across the pharmaceutical value chain.

"We expect to assimilate the available synergies of both partners to exponentially enhance the overall scope, scale and effectiveness of the business," he said.

The substantial cash being infused by Daiichi Sankyo at this stage will be used to expand our business aggressively through the organic and inorganic routes while significantly strengthening our balance sheet, he added.

In June, Daiichi Sankyo had acquired 34 per cent stake in Ranbaxy from the promoters for Rs 9,576 crore at a price of Rs 737 per share.

As part of the acquisition, Daiichi agreed to buy the shares of another pharma company Zenotech Laboratories which had a strategic alliance with Ranbaxy and pick up shares through open offer and direct purchase from the stock market.

However, subsequently Ranbaxy's share price crashed to Rs 260 levels due to the company's problems with the US regulators and the overall slump in the markets.