Shanghvi did not buy Daiichi Sankyo's shares: Sun Pharma

Drug major Sun Pharmaceutical on Wednesday said its promoter and managing director Dilip Shanghvi did not buy shares of the company sold by the Japanese drugmaker Daiichi Sankyo.

". . .Dilip Shanghvi has neither purchased nor agreed to purchase any shares of our company in the said transaction," Sun Pharma said in a BSE filing on Wednesday.

The company was clarifying on speculations that Sanghvi, who holds 9.61 per cent stake in Sun Pharma, had bought shares when Daiichi Sankyo exited from the Indian firm.

According to the data available on BSE, as on April 10, promoter shareholding in Sun Pharma stood at 54.71 per cent.   

On Tuesday, Daiichi Sankyo sold its entire stake of around 9 per cent in Sun Pharmaceutical Industries for over Rs 20,420 crore (Rs 204.2 billion), which it received after merger of Ranbaxy in the Indian drugmaker, ending its seven years of tumultuous experience in the country.

The company, which had forayed into the growing Indian pharmaceutical market by buying a majority stake in Ranbaxy Laboratories in 2008 for Rs 22,000 crore (Rs 22 billion), sold over 21 crore (210 million) shares in Sun Pharma.

Last month, Sun Pharma had announced completion of merger of Ranbaxy with itself, almost a year after announcing the $4-billion deal.

As part of the deal, Ranbaxy shareholders were to receive 0.8 Sun Pharma shares for every Ranbaxy share they held.

Daiichi held 63.4 per cent in the Gurgaon-based firm at the time of the merger.

The merger with Ranbaxy has fortified Sun Pharma's position as the world's fifth largest speciality generic pharma firm and the top-ranking domestic one with a significant lead in the market share.

Sun Pharma shares traded 2.36 per cent higher at Rs 974.10 apiece on the BSE in morning trades.