Sun to spin off, list research arm

Sun Pharmaceuticals Advanced Research Centre (SPARC), the research arm of Sun Pharmaceuticals, will be demerged and listed on the bourses by the end of the current financial year.

As part of the demerger, Sun Pharmaceuticals would be putting in Rs 200-250 crore in SPARC for it to sustain over the next 3-4 years.

Uday Baldota, vice president (investor relations) of Sun Pharmaceuticals, said the process of demerger was underway. The shareholding pattern of SPARC would mirror the pattern of Sun Pharmaceuticals, he added.

Dilip Sanghvi, chairman and managing director of Sun Pharmaceuticals,  said that going forward, the research company was expected to attract sectoral investors.

"The process research would remain with the parent company," Sanghvi said.

Sun has built a war chest of $450 million for acquisitions in the US in a bid to develop its generic drugs business in the region. Sanghvi said: "We are focusing on acquisitions in the US as we want to become a more meaningful player in the $10 billion US drug market. As a criteria for acquisition, we ideally look at 25% return on capital employed within four to five years after providing for the synergies. We might look at single or multiple acquisitions in the US".

Sun Pharma has three plants in the US and one in India approved for supplying drugs to the US. The company would be increasing capacity for Caraco, a Detroit-based generic drug company it acquired in 1997, from 240 crore tablets a year to 300 crore. Caraco's annual revenue in the last fiscal was $ 83 million, Sanghvi said.