Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd is on the prowl again. After acquiring Taro Pharmaceuticals in a $454 million deal in May, the company is again looking at acquiring companies in similar size or even bigger than Taro, particularly in the US market. The company has decided to raise Rs 5,000 crore abroad in a few months.
Sun Pharma, which acquired Taro Pharmaceuticals, an Israel-based generics company with a major presence in the US, Canada and other places, believes that inorganic growth will give it a big push towards exploiting the markets such as the US and Europe while growing faster at a short period of time.
When contacted, a senior official of Sun Pharma while confirming the developments, said, ?We have already made necessary arrangements and investments to grow organically in a big way. What we need is to go for big ticket acquisitions to exploit the huge potential, particularly in the US markets. And Taro was the first major one and we hope to have at least one or two such acquisitions in the near future.?
To a specific question on the company?s decision to go for major fund raising, the official said, ?We have plans to raise Rs 5,000 crore purely for acquisitions and we hope to raise the same during the current fiscal. It could be a GDR or FCCB issue. If required the company may end up diluting 10% to 15% to the prospective investors in the post-issue paid up capital.?
According to him, ?The company is keen on acquiring branded generic companies and it could be a big generic company or one or two that of Taro sizes. We are in the process of identifying the same and we are doing it on our own,? he said adding ?the acquisition will be basically for properties apart from helping us to penetrate deep into the US and European markets.?
It may be recalled that after acquiring a host of smaller companies, Sun Pharma has made a big acquisition of Taro Pharmaceuticals for a consideration of $454 million in May.
The integration process is going smooth and the company hopes to complete the same soon, sources said.