The promoters of Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd have chosen to offload 34.8% stake owned by the founding family to Daiichi Sankyo through an off-market deal.
The promoters sold off a partial stake of 22% to the Japanese pharma giant through the off-market route at a pre-determined price of Rs 737 on Monday. This implies that they would now be liable to pay long-term capital gains tax?to the government at a rate of 22.66% which could range between Rs 600 to Rs 900 crore, depending on the way inflation is factored into the calculation, according to a tax analyst.
Additionally, Ranbaxy received, through the?preferential issue of equity shares and warrants (46.2 million shares), an amount of Rs 3,585 crore?from Daiichi Sankyo. With this, Daiichi??acquired 52.5% of Ranbaxy Laboratories, making the pharma firm a subsidiary, the two companies said in a joint statement on Monday.
?We have partly sold our stake (22%) to Daiichi Sankyo. The entire promoter stake selling will take place off-market,? Ranbaxy CEO and MD Malvinder Mohan Singh, also a promoter, said. The remaining 12.8% would also be sold shortly, and?all the shares would be sold at Rs 737 per share, added Singh.
The total number of shares, including preferential and warrants, acquired by Daiichi include 220,690,423 shares as of now. Of the total, Daiichi acquired 92.5 million shares through open offer and 81.9 million from the promoters of the company.
With the completion of the transactions on Monday, Daiichi Sankyo will?hold?a majority stake in Ranbaxy. However, Ranbaxy?will?continue to operate as an independent and autonomous company and closely cooperate with Daiichi Sankyo to explore and optimise the growth opportunities across the pharmaceutical value chain, said a Ranbaxy statement. Malvinder?Singh will be appointed chairman of the board of directors in addition to his existing responsibilities as CEO & MD, Ranbaxy.
Daiichi and Ranbaxy had announced in early June this year that the Indian pharma company would sell the entire 34.8% promoter stake to the Japanese company for Rs 9,578 crore at Rs 737 per share, a premium of about 31% over the prevailing share price. The deal was valued at about $4.6 billion (Rs 19,780 crore).