SUN Pharma and Taro

Sun Chairman, Dilip Sanghvi & Taro CEO, Barrie Levitt met last week on possible compromise formula to acquire Taro suggests Globes report.

Vikas Dandekar Of Pharmasianews.Com says that at the face of it this appears to be a very positive move because the Chairman of both Sun Pharma and Taro have agreed to meet, as part of the mediation process that has been ordered by the Israeli Supreme Court. Now what will probably happen is that, there will be some amount of flexibility to be shown on the prices of shares that will be put to acquire more shares of Taro by Sun. Sun Pharma had agreed for a USD 9.5/share, while Barrie Levitt had put a price of USD 15/share. Franklin Templeton has been siding with the Taro Board of Directors and their role will also be very important.

The whole idea is that Mr. Shanghvi has been very keen on buying this and it has been delaying his plans of a global consolidation quite a bit. It was two years ago and now also it has not come to a conclusive point, so there will be a bit of a worry on that part. I had an interview with Mr. Shanghvi sometime back and he had mentioned that he has a lot of patience, but his plans have definitely been impacted by now he would have actually consolidated Taro into Sun and the results would have shown and he would have probably gone for something bigger than this particular move. From Barrie Levitt’s point of view it will be important for him to get into the Sun fold. Because in the latest negative for Taro- Taro has been given a show cause notice by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its Canadian manufacturing facility, which will definitely impact Taro. As a whole, it will be very important for both the sides to come to a level playing and agree to a suitable price, so that both companies can work hand in hand and Sun can finally acquire Taro. This is a mediation process, we don’t know what will be the outcome but flexibility will be very important and that will come only when there is intend and will from both the sides.