Comments
Fair trade regulator Competition Commission of India has invited comments from all stakeholders, including general public, on finer details of Ranbaxy Labs’ merger into Sun Pharmaceuticals.
The comments/objections/ suggestions need to be submitted in writing to the regulator within 15 days. On August 27, the regulator had asked the two companies to make public details of their proposed merger.
Stating that it would not consider unsubstantiated objections, CCI on Thursday said on its web site, “The comments shall state the name, address and contact details of the person(s) writing to the Commission, with supporting documents, how such a person(s) is adversely affected or is likely to be affected by the combination.”
The process has been initiated to find out whether the combination has or is likely to have an adverse effect on competition in the relevant market in India.
In April, Sun Pharma had agreed to buy out Ranbaxy in a $4-billion (including $800-million debt), all-stock deal, in the process creating India’s largest drug company. The merger would also create the 5th largest global specialty generics company which would be able to compete in the global speciality generics market on an equal footing.
As a result of the proposed transaction, Sun would be indirectly acquiring Ranbaxy’s shareholding of 46.79 per cent in Zenotech Laboratories Ltd and has announced an open offer for 28.1 per cent shares of Zenotech through the public announcement dated April 11, 2014 to be commenced after completion of the Sun-Ranbaxy merger, the statement from CCI added. As per the scheme, it is proposed that the shareholders of Ranbaxy would receive 0.8 shares of Sun for each share of Ranbaxy that they own.
Sun’s key therapy areas in India are CNS, cardiology, orthopedics, ophthalmology, gastroenterology, nephrology, with increasing focus on complex, difficult to manufacture generic products and chronic therapies. Ranbaxy is owned by Japanese major Daiichi-Sankyo and its key therapies in India include anti-infectives, cardiovascular, pain management, respiratory, dermatology, orthopaedics, nutritionals and urology. Biotech and vaccines are two new segments that Ranbaxy has begun investing in.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.