Dr Reddy's declares offer for Octoplus unconditional

The 'unconditional' declaration meant that the offer received acceptance from the shareholders of Octoplus

Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical major Dr Reddy's Laboratories Limited (DRL) has declared the offer for the Dutch pharmaceutical  company Octoplus NV "unconditional".

The "unconditional" declaration meant that the offer received acceptance from the shareholders of the target company (Octoplus) to sell their shares.

Octoplus is a speciality pharmaceutical company focused on the development and manufacture of improved injectable pharmaceuticals based on proprietary drug discovery technologies. It is stated be a leading European provider of advanced drug formulation and clinical scale manufacturing services to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.

In October last year, DRL announced its intention to buy Octoplus for an offer price of €27.39 million. During the offer period, which ended on February 8, 2013, it had purchased 37.23 million shares at Euro 19.36 million.

DRL informed BSE on Tuesday that 70.7% of the shares have been tendered under the offer, which together with shares acquired by the company during the offer period  represented a total of 92.7%. The settlement of the offer would take place on February 15.

DRL intends to acquire all shares of Octoplus and terminate the Netherland-based company's listing on NYSE Euronext Amsterdam as soon as possible. Accordingly, it has announced a post closing acceptance period starting from February 13 and ending of February 26, 2013,  to enable the shareholders who did not tender their shares during the offer period to tender their shares under the same terms and conditions and at the same price applicable to the offer.

DRL's shares were trading on BSE at Rs 1,914, up 0.73% over the previous day's close of 1,900.05.