Roche To Return Via Equity Stake In Nicholas Piramal India

Swiss drug multinational Hoffmann-La Roche is staging a comeback to India through a second tie-up with Nicholas Piramal India Ltd. The Swiss drug major will acquire a six per cent stake in the equity of the Ajay Piramal group company, with which it is renewing ties after a gap of four years.

Roches impending return to India is the result of an $11 billion takeover of Germanys Boehringer Mannheim and the US-based DePuy group. The takeover, which must now be approved by regulatory authorities, was announced yesterday.

Roche said it had acquired Bermuda-based holding company, Corange which controlled all the shares of Boehringer Mannheim and had an 84.2 per cent stake in DePuy on Saturday. The newly combined unit, Roche Boehringer Mannheim Diag-nostics, is expected to emerge as the worlds leading diagnostics company.

In India, Boehringer Mannheim India Ltd (BMIL) is being merged with Piramal Healthcare and Nicholas Piramal India Ltd (NPIL) as part of the Piramal groups plans to bring its pharma operations under the same umbrella. After BMIL is merged with the Piramal group companies, the German parent will have a stake of around 6.4 per cent in Nicholas Piramals expanded share capital.

Roche had sold its entire 74 per cent stake in its Indian subsidiary, Roche Products (India) Ltd to Piramal Enterprises in November 1993. Roche Products was later renamed Piramal Healthcare Ltd.

Roches acquisition of the German-based Boehringer Mannheim has thus brought the entire cycle that commenced in November 1993 full circle.

Nicholas Piramal currently has a share capital of Rs 18.43 crore, which will go up to Rs 27.70 crore after the three-way merger with BMIL and Piramal Healthcare is completed.

BMIL shareholders will receive one share in NPIL for every two shares held by them in the company. Effectively, 17. 73 lakh shares of NPIL will be issued to BMIL shareholders. Piramal Healthcare shareholders will receive three shares of NPIL for every four held by them.

The mergers will come up for hearing before the Bombay High Court on June 12.

The shareholders approval for the mergers has already been obtained by the companies at their extraordinary general meetings (EGMs) in February this year.