Daiichi Sankyo to raise $1 bn through bonds issue

Japanese drug maker Daiichi Sankyo, the majority shareholder in Indian pharma major Ranbaxy Laboratories, plans to raise 100 billion yen (about $1.04 billion) through public issue of bonds.

Daiichi would be issuing bonds worth 60 billion yen and 40 billion yen, respectively, it said in a statement today.

The company would be issuing bonds in two tranches, with maturity period of five years and 10 years, respectively. The bond offering began today.

The first series of bonds worth 60 billion yen would have a maturity period of five years. The remaining bonds of 40 billion yen would have a maturity period of 10 years.

Daiichi said the denomination of each bond in the offering would be 100 million yen.

The Japanese entity which has a controlling stake in Ranbaxy, recently said its full-year losses narrowed to 215.59 billion yen (about $2.2 billion) on account of changes related to accounting guidelines in Japan.

Daiichi has revised its losses to 215.59 billion yen for the year ended 31 March 2009. Earlier, the company had reported a full-year loss of 335.8 billion yen.