The Singh family has sold off its remaining stake in Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd, thus ceasing to be the promoters of one of India's largest pharmaceutical firms. With this, Japanese pharma major Daiichi Sankyo has completed its acquisition of Ranbaxy, now holding a 63.92% stake. The stake held by Daiichi Sankyo consists of issued, subscribed and fully paid-up equity share capital.
The Singh family sold 48,020,900 equity shares for Rs 737 today, which aggregates to Rs 3,539 crore. After completing the open offer for a 20% stake last month, Daiichi Sankyo acquired 19.48% stake from the Singh family for a price of Rs 6,037 crore.
Singhs had been trying to do a market transaction for the deal, thus avoiding capital gains tax. But the deal was finally done as an off-market transaction, with Singhs coming under the tax net.
In June this year, in one of the biggest buy outs of any Indian company by an MNC, Daiichi Sankyo announced it would acquire a majority stake in Ranbaxy. The promoters - the Singh - were to sell their 34.8% stake at Rs 737 per share.
"We are pleased that the deal has been closed successfully. This puts us well on the path to create a hybrid business model that will unlock the strengths of both companies to bring unprecedented value to all stakeholders," said Malvinder Singh, CEO & MD, Ranbaxy.
The Singh family has now been focusing on its financial services arm, Religare Enterprises. The firm has announced its acquisition of Lotus Mutual Fund earlier this week. Religare has also announced a Rs 1,800 crore rights issue, which the Singhs have agreed to underwrite.
