Markets watchdog Sebi has requested for data on Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd stock price movements over the past few weeks. The share price of the country?s largest drug maker rose 3.86% to Rs 526.40 on June 9, two days before the company announced its buyout by Daiichi Sankyo. The benchmark Sensex plunged 506 points the same day.
Daiichi Sankyo agreed to pay as much as $4.6 billion for a 50.1% stake in Ranbaxy. As reported earlier by FE, on June 10, a day before the deal was announced, the Ranbaxy scrip surged 6.52% to Rs 560.75 and the Sensex fell 177 points. The stock ended almost flat at Rs 560.80 on June 11. On Monday, it settled at 567.75 points, up a mere 0.15%.
A senior government official said the regulator has called for trading details of Ranbaxy shares from stock exchanges to inquire into the contrarian movement of the company?s stock over the last two weeks. ?There was some unusual movement in the stock price before the deal was announced, which needs to be looked into,? the official said.
Analysts say the Ranbaxy stock movement prior to the deal was not large. ?The Ranbaxy deal was interesting in that while the market sensed something was in the offing, the deal still took everyone by surprise. Thus, the amount of movement in the stock as well as the period over which speculative positions were built were not large,? BMR & Associates partner (M&A) Vivek Gupta told FE.
When contacted, a Ranbaxy spokesperson said he was not aware of any inquiry by the regulator. ?There is no such communication from Sebi to us,? Ranbaxy spokesperson Krishnan Ramalingam said. He said the stock movement over the past few days has been largely speculation-driven.
Sebi has a standard procedure for inquiries into sharp and sudden stock movements of scrips. But this does not necessarily imply any wrongdoing by a company.
Our Corporate Bureau adds from Mumbai: Daiichi Sankyo, which acquired 34.8% stake in Ranbaxy Laboratories, on Monday made an open offer to pick up a further 20% stake for up to Rs 6,818.65 crore. The offer is scheduled to open on August 8 and close on August 27. The announcement also comes at a time when unconfirmed reports said that US drug major Pfizer is eyeing a 65% stake in the Indian firm.