Piramal stock rises on selloff speculation; firm denies reports

The share prices of Piramal Healthcare touched a 52-week high of Rs 580.50 on the Bombay Stock Exchange today, on speculation that the company was close to divesting its domestic formulation business and pathology laboratory network. The shares closed at Rs 575.90.

A few news reports in the past two days had said Piramal was planning to sell its domestic formulations, which contribute over half of its revenues, and that French major Sanofi-Aventis was close to clinching the deal.

A few months earlier, Glaxo SmithKline was speculated to take over the Ajay Piramal-promoted company, whose turonver in 2008-09 was Rs 2,336 crore. A section of the media also said it was planning to sell its pathological business, worth over Rs 200 crore.

“There is absolutely no truth in these reports and the promoters are not going to sell their shares to any company,” N Santhanam, Group President and CFO, told Business Standard.