India Briefs

Ranbaxy laboratories and Cipla, India's leading pharmaceutical companies have formed an alliance to co-market Ranbaxy's once-a-day formulation of ciprofloxacin, an anti-infective. Together both companies brands account for over 30 per cent of the ciprofloxacin market.

Reliance Life Sciences has filed for a provisional patent in the US patent office in the area of embryonic stem cells. Reliance will invest $ 25 million in the life science business in the next two to three years. The company will set up a regenerative medicine centre in Mumbai.

Wartsila Corporation of Finland announced an open offer to buy out the remaining 49 per cent stake in its Indain arm ,Wartsila India at Rs 120 per share.

The buy back will cost the Wartsila group approximately Rs 70 crore ($15.04 million). The offer price was made at a premium of around 74 per cent to Wednesday's closing price on the BSE.

Leading Financial Institutions like ICICI and IDBI are reportedly facing a substantial asset-liability mismatch. While ICICI has assets of Rs 19,679 crore against a comparable maturity of Rs 26,352 crore, IDBI has assets worth Rs 24,643 crore with a comparable maturity of Rs 31,381 crore. Both institutions have been borrowing short and lending long to capitalise on the prevailing low interest regime.

The Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) barred Arun Bajoria, the kolkata based jute baron from accessing the capital market for a period of one year for violation of the takeover code in the Bombay Dyeing case.

According to SEBI, Mr Bajoria had violated regulation 7 (1) of the take over code by failing to disclose to Bombay Dyeing when his stake in the company increased to more than five per cent.