The Hindu Business Line : Daiichi Sankyo gets SEBI nod for Ranbaxy open offer

New Delhi, Aug 4 The Securities and Exchange Board of India has given its approval to the open offer from Daiichi Sankyo to acquire an additional 20 per cent stake in Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd.

The Japanese pharmaceutical major had earlier announced to launch the open offer on August 8 and close it on August 28 but had to defer it following the delay in receiving approval from the market regulator. Now that the approvals have come through Daiichi Sankyo is expected to announce the new dates for the open offer in a day or two.

Daiichi Sankyo is planning to acquire up to 9.21 crore shares at Rs 737 each through the open offer. The Japanese company had announced earlier that it was buying out 34.81 per cent stake in Ranbaxy held by the Singh family. It will also acquire 9.5 per cent through preferential allotment of equity shares and another 4.5 per cent through share warrants to be issued on a preferential basis. Daiichi Sankyo’s stake in Ranbaxy could go up to 58 per cent after the open offer. The entire deal is valued at $3.4-4.6 billion.

On completion of the acquisition, the board of directors would be re-constituted to comprise 10 members, of which a combination of four independent and non-independent directors would be nominated by Ranbaxy, while the rest six will be named by Daiichi Sankyo.

The approval for the open offer from SEBI came on the heels of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board giving its nod to the deal between Daiichi Sankyo and the Singh family. Ranbaxy’s share price went up 2.8 per cent to close at Rs 524 on Monday. When contacted Ranbaxy officials refused to comment. Earlier, Mr Malvinder Mohan Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, Ranbaxy, had said that the deal with Daiichi Sankyo was on track.

FDI approval: Economy Page

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