Zenotech open offer: SC sets aside SAT order
Setting aside an order by SAT, the Supreme Court today said Japanese drug maker Daiichi-Sankyo's open-offer price of Rs 113.62 for acquiring 20 per cent shares of Zenotech Laboratories from the open market was fair. A bench, comprising Chief Justice S H Kapadia and Justices Aftab Alam and R M Lodha, said: "The offer price in the public announcement for Zenotech shares made by the appellant was correctly worked out. It follows that the judgment of the appellate tribunal is unsustainable, and has to be set aside." It set aside an October 2009 order of the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) directing the Japanese firm to make an open offer to Zenotech Labs shareholders at Rs 160 per share. The court further said, "We find that the controversy is completely free of any confusion, and the view canvassed on behalf of the respondents (minority shareholder) is not even a remotely possible view of the matter." The court also dismissed allegations of the minority shareholders of Hyderabad-based firm Jayaram Chigurupati that Indian Pharma major Ranbaxy, which has transferred its stake in Zenotech, was acting in concert with Daiichi-Sankyo for fixing open offer prices. "... so far as Zenotech is concerned, Ranbaxy was not acting in concert with Daiichi either from the date of the share purchase and share subscription agreement or even after becoming a subsidiary of Daiichi and the acquisition of Zenotech shares by Ranbaxy in the month of January 2008," the court further said. Daiichi-Sankyo, which had bought a controlling stake in the Indian pharma major Ranbaxy, was in a bitter dispute with the minority shareholder of Zenotech over the offer price. Zenotech Lab, which was a subsidiary of Ranbaxy, was also bought by Daiichi-Sankyo in its deal with Malvinder Singh in 2008 Daiichi-Sankyo had contended before the apex court that it would pay Rs 113.62 per share to Zenotech shareholders for their 20 per cent stake, which is 68.85 lakh shares.
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