Japanese drug major Daiichi Sankyo, which owns Ranbaxy after acquiring the firm last year, on Monday said it has postponed its open offer to acquire a 20% stake in the Hyderabad-based Zenotech Labs after Securities Appellate Tribunal of India (SAT) ordered a status quo on the issue.

Ranbaxy had acquired a 46% stake in Zenotech last year. After Daiichi Sankyo acquired a 63.9% stake in Ranbaxy, the Japanese company decided to make an open offer for an additional 20% in Zenotech. When the Daiichi Sankyo board had approved the Zenotech open offer, however, it did not disclose the price at which it planned to purchase the shares.

“The Securities Appellate Tribunal of India has directed that the status quo be maintained in respect of the open offer. Hence, the open offer will not commence as scheduled on August 11, 2009,? Daiichi Sankyo Company said in a statement.

Zenotech shares were down marginally to close at Rs 105 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on Monday. Ranbaxy shares, on the other hand, moved up 0.02% to close at Rs 261 on the BSE.

Over the past few months, the two firms had been battling in courts over the price of the open offer.

SAT’s order regarding the status quo of the public offer came after Zenotech’s two shareholders — Jayaram Chigurupati and Narayan — moved the tribunal against the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (Sebi) nod to Daiichi for the offer at Rs 113 per share.

Daiichi’s offer at Rs 113 per share ran into trouble as Zenotech complained against it to Sebi saying the Japanese firm is not honouring its earlier commitment of Rs 160 per share. The market regulator upheld Daiichi’s position.

After the order, Zenotech moved the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court seeking quashing of Sebi’s nod for the offer at Rs 113 a share, which the court dismissed. Daiichi had announced an open offer to acquire 68.85 lakh shares, or a 20% stake, in Zenotech, an affiliate of Ranbaxy, in February this year.

Zenotech, promoted by Chigurupati, a former Dr Reddy?s Labs executive , posted losses of Rs 14.70 crore on sales of Rs 8.57 crore for FY08. At the time of the Ranbaxy stake acquisition, Zenotech had two biotechnology-based cancer treatments in India with another eight being developed for sale in Europe by 2011.