Sizzling September: Over 22 cos approach Sebi for IPOs

Press Trust of India / New Delhi September 30, 2010, 16:36 IST

As many as 22 companies filed draft papers for initial share offers in September, the highest in any single month of 2010 so far, according to data from market regulator Sebi.

As per details available with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), over 22 companies filed draft red herring prospectus (DHRP) for their proposed initial public offers in September.The DRHP of at least 22 firms has already been uploaded on the Sebi website, while some are still to be uploaded. The maximum number of DHRPs filed in a single month this year so far was 18 in March.
    
The companies that jumped on the IPO bandwagon during September include state-run Manganese Ore India Ltd and Hindustan Copper.
    
Some other big names include L&T Finance Holdings (Rs 1,500 crore), Kalpataru Ltd (Rs 1,000 crore) infra major HCC- promoted Lavasa Corporation (Rs 2,000 crore) and Kishore Biyani-promoted Future Ventures India (Rs 750 crore).
    
The rally in the secondary market and some good listings in recent weeks have also encouraged India Inc to tap the capital markets, analysts said.
    
The BSE benchmark Sensex regained the magical 20,000-level in September after a gap of 32 months. Equity analysts said the rally was driven by huge inflows from FIIs, which have invested over Rs 80,000 crore in local stocks so far this year.

TechM-Satyam merger to start by mid-Nov

Reuters / Hyderabad September 29, 2010, 19:40 IST

Tech Mahindra will start the process to merge outsourcer Mahindra Satyam with itself by mid-November, a top official of said on Wednesday.

Earlier, Mahindra Satyam reported a net loss of Rs 124.6 crore ($27.8 million) for the year ended March 2010, giving the first view of its financials almost two years after it was hit by India's biggest corporate fraud.

Tech Mahindra, which acquired Satyam in April 2009 and is operating it as an independent company, has said it can only merge the firm into the parent after the restated results for fiscal years 2009 and 2010 are announced.

MCX-SX to challenge Sebi order

Press Trust of India / Mumbai September 28, 2010, 21:27 IST

MCX Stock Exchange (MCX-SX) today said that it is seeking legal opinion on whether to approach the High Court or Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) to challenge Sebi's order that rejected its application to offer trading in segments like equities and equity derivatives.

"We will shortly take appropriate measures in consultation with our legal counsels to move the High Court or SAT," MCX-SX's MD & CEO Joseph Massey told reporters here.

Sebi, last week, rejected MCX-SX application to offer trading in segments like equities and equity derivatives, citing failure to comply with shareholding norms and illegal buyback agreements by promoters, among several other issues.

 

"The Sebi order goes on to reinforce our feeling that the regulator is biased. It is unfortunate that Sebi did not consider most of our submissions in its order. This leaves us with no other choice but to go to an appropriate forum for justice," Massey said.

The exchange has always maintained transparency in all its conduct and practices.

"We kept Sebi updated about every move of ours through letters and meetings, but Sebi never got back with any replies with any suggestions, solutions or deadlines," Massey said.

Massey also alleged that the scheme of reduction of capital was initially advised by Sebi and was informed to Sebi by a detailed letter in December 2009 immediately after filing the scheme.

"Sebi never questioned the scheme and our compliance with Manner of Increasing and Maintaining Public Shareholding (MIMPS) Regulations in all these eight months. Sebi raised these issues about the scheme only in its notice in August 2010, when we had already reached a point of 'irreversibility' on implementation of the scheme," he said.

Massey said that MIMPS policy was relaxed for NSE shareholders in December 2008 up to 15 per cent and the suggestions of MCX-SX was ignored by Sebi. NSE was also given 4-years for MIMPS compliance whereas MCX-SX was given only one year, Massey added.

Sebi also directed MCX-SX to approach CCI for predatory pricing in CD segment instead of resolving the same, Massey said.

Example of a Joint Venture

Wal-Mart, Bharti ink 50:50 joint venture

BS Reporter / New Delhi August 7, 2007

The world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart, today announced a 50:50 joint venture with Bharti Enterprises for wholesale cash-and-carry business in India that will roll out 10-15 such outlets over seven years. This also covers a supply chain and back-end logistics.

The joint venture has been christened Bharti Wal-Mart Pvt Ltd and the first outlet will open by end-2008. The two companies had signed an agreement in November last year.

This marks the second foreign investment in the cash-and-carry business, after German company Metro AG, which entered five years ago.

Indian laws currently allow 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) only in wholesale retail. Current foreign direct investment regulations do not permit global multi-brand retailers to enter India directly.

At present, 51 per cent FDI is allowed but only for single-brand outlets. “Our joint venture is in full conformity with existing laws,” said Rajan Mittal, MD, Bharti Enterprises.

Wal-Mart has gone ahead with its plans for India at a time when its competitors Tesco and Carrefour have decided to wait for FDI norms to be relaxed.

The joint venture company will initially concentrate on smaller cities in north India, and each store will be spread over 50,000 to 1 million square feet. The cash-and-carry outlets will sell fruit and vegetables, staple foods, stationery, clothing, consumer electronics and other general merchandise.

The targeted customers include small neighbourhood stores (kirana outlets) and fresh produce resellers, hotels and restaurants.

“There are 12 million kirana outlets in India; yet, less than 1 million of them are served directly by consumer goods companies. Our joint venture is well-poised to serve the targeted customer base and to also link the farmers and small manufacturers with customers,” said Raj Jain, country president for Wal-Mart’s operations in India.

The joint venture will source 90 per cent of the goods from India, while the rest will be imported. Wal-Mart today sources goods worth nearly $600 million from India, and this is expected to be multiplied many times over once the cash-and-carry outlets are operational.

Both companies declined to comment on projected investment, turnover or possible revenue realisation from this.

“Wal-Mart’s global vision is to save people’s money. We intend to do the same in India,” said Jain. Wal-Mart’s expertise lies in cutting costs with a technically superior supply chain. Bharti Retail has signed a franchise agreement with Wal-Mart for technical collaboration. It is still not known whether the Wal-Mart brand will be incorporated in Bharti Retails’ stores or even in the cash-and-carry outlets. “We will unveil the brand closer to the launch,” said Mittal.

As M&A activity picks up, white knights are riding into India Inc

Business Standard/Ranju Sarkar / New Delhi September 28, 2010, 0:28 IST

However, the corporate landscape is strewn with instances of benefactors actually turning into predators.

In 2007, Israeli drugmaker Taro Pharmaceutical was in trouble. Inventories and debtors mounted, and it ran out of cash after a string of US acquisitions. When Dilip Shanghvi, chairman of Sun Pharma, stepped in as a white knight and offered to merge the two companies in a $454-million deal, little did he realise that it would ultimately take a three-year legal battle to gain control of Taro.

Cut to August this year. When an arm of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) picked up 14.12 per cent stake in hotelier EIH Ltd, Mukesh Ambani donned a new avatar. As a white knight, Ambani helped EIH owner Prithvi Raj Oberoi counter a possible bid by ITC Ltd. The cigarette-to-hospitality-to-FMCG major has mopped up 14.98 per cent stake in the hotel company over the years.

By bringing in a strong third shareholder with a large stake, Oberoi managed to shore up his defences against ITC. ‘‘If ITC, with 14.98 per cent stake, executed an open offer, there was no way the Oberois could have countered it. At best, they could have raised their stake by 5 per cent every year,’’ explained Himani Singh, an analyst with Elara Capital.

In one fell swoop, Oberoi managed to pit a stronger force (RIL) against ITC, in effect neutralising the marauder, had it decided to launch an open offer. ITC has maintained for a decade that it would not launch a hostile bid for EIH, but its stake was too high for the Oberoi’s comfort. Indeed, before inking the deal with RIL, the Oberois had tried to rope in Analjit Singh of Max, who holds 4 per cent stake in EIH.

A white knight – or, a company that thwarts a hostile takeover of a target company by executing a friendly takeover instead —is a common phenomenon in global M&As. When Mittal Steel, for instance, went after Arcelor, the European steelmaker approached Russian peer Severstal to help it ward off the Lakshmi Mittal-led group. Though it is a relatively new phenomenon in India, there are already a few instances of domestic companies playing white knight.

In many cases, of course, financial institutions like Life Insurance Corporation or government-controlled banks have come to the rescue of Indian companies facing takeover threats. The most celebrated of these cases were attempts by RIL to take over Larsen & Toubro and by UK’s BAT to wrest control of local arm ITC.

In a more recent instance, K Raghavendra Rao, the promoter of Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals Ltd, managed to garner the support of institutional investors to ward off a takeover bid by Solrex (believed to be controlled by brothers Malvinder and Shivinder Singh, erstwhile owners of Ranbaxy Laboratories). Solrex had picked up 12 per cent stake in Orchid. Institutions, which together held 38 per cent, backed Rao.

In 2000, the promoters of realty firm Gesco Corporation turned to the Mahindras to counter a hostile bid by Delhi-based Abhishek Dalmia. The Sheths of Gesco were caught napping when Dalmia’s Renaissance Estates used a low share price to buy over 10 per cent stake in Gesco and mounted an open offer for another 45 per cent.

The Sheths turned to master strategist Deepak Parkeh of HDFC. He roped in the Mahindras and its group firm, Mahindra Realty & Infrastructure, to make a counter offer with the Sheths for 33.5 per cent of Gesco. The battle ended after Dalmia sold his 10.5 per cent stake in Gesco to the Sheth-Mahindra combine and made a killing.

Dwijedra Tripathi, a former professor at IIM-Ahmedabad and a business historian, feels that as M&A activity picks up in the country, we could see even more attempts at hostile takeovers and the appearance of white knights.

But sometimes, a white knight could turn predator, as another faction of the Sheth family discovered recently. In 2009, Vijay Kantilal Sheth, the promoter of Great Offshore Ltd (GOL), was in trouble when lenders made margin calls under a share-pledge deal. The promoters of Bharati Shipyard stepped in to help Sheth with the required cash.

Although Bharati Shipyard’s PC Kapoor maintained that it was only a strategic investor, it subsequently wrested around 14.89 per cent stake in GOL, making itself the largest shareholder, and launched an open offer for another 20 per cent. This was the first instance in the history of corporate India, where pledged shares were invoked.

The battle to acquire GOL intensified after ABG Shipyard made a counter offer to acquire 33.8 per cent. Both continued mopping up shares from the market and revising the offer price in a takeover battle that lasted over six months. It finally came to an end when ABG Shipyard exited the race and Bharati Shipyard took control of GOL.

A white knight can even be perceived as a black knight -- as Ramesh Vangal’s experience at Tamilnad Merchantile Bank (TMB) reveals. In May 2007, when Vangal and his friends stepped in to to buy out C Sivasankaran's stake in the bank, he was seen as a white knight. But his attempt to place his nominees on the board met with stiff resistance from the Nadar community, who feared outsiders would take control of bank that it controlled.

Ironically, Sivasankaran himself had come in as a white knight to buy out the Ruias of Essar Group, who had cornered 67 per cent in the bank. When Reserve Bank of India ruled that an industrial group could not run a bank, the Ruias agreed to sell the stake back to the community, but at a high price. That’s when Sivasankaran came in as an investor and bought the Essar stake. He agreed to sell it back to the Nadars at 2.38 times the price, but they could afford to buy back only half the stake.

TMB has been mired in an ownership battle between brothers Sivanthi Adityan, who runs one of the largest Tamil dailies, Daily Thanthi, and Ramachandra Adityan. In January, Sivanthi, with the support of the Nadar Mahajana Sangam and foreign investors, wrested control of TMB’s board. Ramachandra had earlier fought to retrieve the bank from Sivasankaran, but later opposed the entry of non-Nadar groups.

Unilever to buy Alberto for $3.7 bn as growth plan

Unilever’s biggest acquisition in a decade will add brands such as V05, TRESemme and Nexxus to Unilever’s existing Dove and Sunsilk.

London: Consumer goods group Unilever Plc/NV will buy US hair and skin care company Alberto Culver for $3.7 billion in the latest move to rebalance its portfolio towards higher growth lines.

Unilever’s biggest acquisition in a decade will add brands such as V05, TRESemme and Nexxus to Unilever’s existing Dove and Sunsilk, and make it the world’s leading company in hair conditioning and the second largest in shampoo.

Analysts said the price of the deal looked high but could be justified by as-yet unspecified cost savings and by skewing Unilever’s business to more high growth, high margin categories compared to its other food and detergent businesses.

The acquisition follows a yet-to-be completed deal to buy Sara Lee’s bodycare division for $1.3 billion and will also mark Unilever’s biggest acquisition since its massive Bestfoods deal in 2000.

“The initial consideration for Alberto Culver of 14.8 times EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) on the face of it looks quite punchy but we believe ‘significant´ but as yet undisclosed synergies will make the price look more reasonable,” said analyst Graham Jones at brokers Panmure Gordon.

Unilever Plc shares rose 2.23% to 18.33 pounds by 3:56pm, in a little changed London stock market as other analysts said the deal will give Unilever greater hair care sales in the US where it has struggled in recent years.

The deal will be chief executive Paul Polman’s second big acquisition since he took over the helm at Unilever in January 2009, and both the Alberto Culver and Sara Lee deals are in personal care, the company’s biggest and fastest growing business line. “Personal care is a strategic category for Unilever and growing rapidly. Ten years ago it represented 20% of our turnover; strong organic growth has driven it to now reach over 30%, with strong positions in many of the emerging markets,” Polman said in a statement on Monday.

Its brands will complement Unilever’s existing brands like Dove, Clear and Sunsilk in hair care, and Pond’s and Vaseline in skincare, and enhance Unilever’s presence in emerging markets such as Mexico and also in the more mature markets of the U.S., Canada, Britain, and Australasia.

Unilever’s proposed acquisition of Sara Lee Sanex deordorant and Radox bodycare business, first announced last September, is priced at around 10 times EBITDA, a relatively low price to reflect the disparate collection of brands being acquired.

The European Union is still examining the deal and is set to rule by Oct 26, and analysts expect Unilever to be required to divest some deodorant businesses to clear the deal which it hopes to complete in the fourth quarter..

Alberto Culver made annual sales of nearly $1.6 billion and EBITDA of over $250 million in the 12-month period ending June 30, 2010.

“Bolt-on acquisitions such as Alberto Culver supplement organic growth and add powerful new brands to our portfolio,” Polman added.

The US-based group has operations in nine countries, including the US, Canada, Argentina, Mexico, Britain, South Africa and Australasia. It has six manufacturing plants and employs around 2,700 people.

In another personal care deal, Britain’s PZ Cussons said it had bought the tanning-products firm St Tropez from its private equity owner LDC for 62.5 million pounds.

Corus adopts Tata Steel as its new identity

27 Sep, 2010, 06.13PM IST,AGENCIES

 

LONDON: The Tata Steel name and logo will begin to appear on the company's transactional documents, product deliveries, locations and vehicles. Not everything will change immediately, however, as the re-branding will be a gradual process.

Corus joined the Tata Steel family in April 2007 in a transaction that created one of the world’s largest steelmakers, with a major presence in Europe as well as Asia. Like Corus and its predecessors, Tata Steel has a history of having pioneered the first integrated steelworks in India a century ago.

Kirby Adams, MD & CEO of Tata Steel Europe, said: “The companies that comprise Tata Steel Europe have evolved over many decades from local to national to regional players. They now form part of one of the world's top ten steelmakers, with a wide product range, a relatively high degree of raw materials self-sufficiency and a global market reach from manufacturing sites across Europe and Asia.

"This is the right time to enter a new era under the Tata Steel name, now that we have successfully returned the company to profit following the global financial crisis. This brand migration will lead to the Tata Steel name becoming much more prominent and widely recognised across Europe and will reinforce our sense of belonging to the Tata Steel family.”

Tata Steel, which is listed on Bombay and National Stock Exchanges, is a member of the Tata Group, one of India’s largest business houses.

Tata Steel Europe (formerly Corus) is Europe's second largest steel producer. With main steelmaking operations in the UK and the Netherlands, the company supplies steel and related services to the construction, automotive, packaging, material handling and other demanding markets worldwide. The combined Group has an aggregate crude steel capacity of more than 28 million tonnes and approximately 80,000 employees across four continents.

TAKEOVER WEEK

Overview of Mergers and Acquisition

 Overview Of Mergers & Acquisitions

What is a Greenshoe Option?

Number of students are coming with a query of what is a Green Shoe Option, let me explain you:

The greenshoe option is a clause in the underwriting agreement of an IPO, which allows to sell additional shares, usually 15%, to the public if the demand exceeds expectations and the stock trades above its offering price.

This option, also known as the over-allotment provision. It gets its name from the Green Shoe company, which was the first company to allow such an option. 

Example:

ABC to embrace 'Green shoe' option

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-07-13 11:17

In the ABC A-share offering, lead underwriters are entitled to exercise the green shoe option within 30 days following its listing.

Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) is the second company in the history of the Shanghai stock exchange to embrace the "green shoe" option - known in legal jargon as an over-allotment option - which allows members of its initial public offering (IPO) underwriting syndicate to sell additional shares if demand exceeds the original offering.

The green shoe can offer up to 15 percent more shares than the original number set by the issuer as a way for underwriters to stabilize the price of a new issue after its trading debut.

The name is derived from the Green Shoe Manufacturing Co, a boot maker founded in 1919 in the United States, the first company to permit underwriters to use this practice in its offering.

When used, the option aims to maintain the share price in the initial listing period and engineer a smooth transition to the secondary market.

The exercise is also expected to greatly lower investor risks for retail investors who subscribe to its online IPO tranche.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the world's biggest lender by market value, was the first Chinese company to use the green shoe practice in the A-share market in 2006 during what was then the world's biggest IPO.

ICBC priced its A-share IPO at 3.12 yuan and closed at 3.28 yuan on its first day of trading in Shanghai on October 27, 2006.

Its share prices later declined to as low as 3.25 yuan before rebounding to close the year at 6.36 yuan, or up 103.8 percent from its IPO price. 16 Aug, 2010, 03.56AM IST,ET Bureau

Greenshoe option makes

AgBank IPO the biggest

16 Aug, 2010, 03.56AM IST,ET Bureau

SHANGHAI: Agricultural Bank of China, or AgBank, boosted the size of its initial public offering to $22.1 billion after selling more stock in Shanghai, making it the world’s largest first-time share sale.


China’s biggest lender by customers said on Sunday it had fully exercised an over-allotment option, also known as a greenshoe, for the Shanghai portion of its initial public offering, selling a further 3.34 billion shares at the IPO price of 2.68 yuan apiece. That increased the Shanghai portion of the lender’s IPO to 67.6 billion yuan ($9.9 billion).


Over-allotments are released when demand for the shares in the after-market is heavy. Underwriters release the shares, set aside at the original IPO price, to the allocated holders who then become public stockholders.


AgBank had already exercised a similar option for its Hong Kong portion last month. The exercise of the over-allotment brings the number of shares sold in AgBank’s Hong Kong and Shanghai offerings to 54.79 billion, increasing the original $19.3 billion raised by 15%.


The expansion propels AgBank’s IPO past Industrial and Commercial Bank of China’s $21.9 billion sale in 2006 to become the world’s largest. The bank raised $20.8 billion selling shares in Hong Kong and Shanghai last month as chairman Xiang Junbo braved a stock-market rout that drove the Chinese benchmark index to a 15-month low.


AgBank has declined 0.4% since its July 15 debut in Shanghai, while in Hong Kong, where the stock started trading a day later, the shares have advanced 3.7%. Domestic investors in China ordered more than 10 times the stock available to them.


The Beijing-based lender is the last major Chinese bank to sell shares to the public, wrapping up a decade-long overhaul of the nation’s banking industry that cost the government an estimated $650 billion in bailouts and restructuring programmes.


China’s five biggest banks intend to raise a total of $63 billion this year by selling bonds and shares to replenish capital eroded by a record $1.4 trillion of new loans last year.


Rural Roots


The IPO of AgBank, once the weakest lender in China, makes the nation home to four of the world’s 10 biggest banks by market value, half a decade after the country’s first major state-owned lender went public.


The lender, established to serve the country’s farmers and less affluent rural areas, boosted profit by 26% to 65 billion yuan last year, and forecasts net income will rise to at least 82.9 billion yuan in 2010, according to its prospectus. China’s economic growth slowed to 10.3% in the second quarter from 11.9% in the previous three months.


China International Capital, Citic Securities, China Galaxy Securities and Guotai Junan Securities are managing the yuan-denominated A-share offer.

Greenshoe Option Helps China's Agricultural Bank Raise $22B

by CFO Innovation Staff, 16 August 2010

The Agricultural Bank of China Ltd has raised a total of $22.1 billion from its dual listing in Hong Kong and Shanghai to $22.1 billion, beating the record held by Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. for its $21.93 billion IPO in 2006, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Agbank exercised the overallotment option—also known as a greenshoe—after struggling to stir interest among investors.

The overallotment option is a tool used by underwriters to limit volatility in a stock's price for a month after it lists. Prior to listing in Shanghai, AgBank said it had sold 15% more shares than it planned to issue in the IPO, notes the Journal.

BSNL’s IPO may be put off indefinitely

NEW DELHI: BSNL’s plans to sell 30% stake through an IPO, as suggested by a prime minister-appointed panel, could be put off indefinitely.

The telecom department has told a parliamentary committee that scrutinises the accounts of the government and state-owned companies that BSNL’s listing will be taken up only after the company’s performance improves in order to get the right valuation.

“The issue of listing would be taken up after the performance of BSNL improves to get the right valuation and after obtaining the views of different stakeholders, like staff union and associations,” department of telecom said while replying to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

The PAC, constituted by members of Parliament, had launched a probe into the dismal financial performance of BSNL, and had sought written response from the telecom department, with strategies to improve the finances of BSNL, which posted a loss of Rs 1,822.65 crore for the year to end-March, a first in the company’s history. The DoT’s response to this committee was sent last week and ET reviewed a copy of it.

The state-owned telco’s performance had been touching new lows every year since 2007, and losses are set to mount this fiscal, indicating that the performance turnaround DoT is waiting for, is unlikely in the immediate future.

The first-ever loss came after the company posted profits of Rs 575 crore in 2009-10 and Rs 3,009 crore in the previous year.

Earlier this year, the Sam Pitroda panel had recommended a strategic stake sale and staff cut by a third to revive the flagging fortunes of the state-owned company.

The government should sell a 30% stake in the company through an IPO and also raise funds from the sale of its infrastructure, such as signal towers and real estate, this panel, whose members included banker Deepak Parekh and telecom secretary PJ Thomas, proposed.

The committee also added that the company should use the funds from the share sale to retire about a third of its three lakh employees, through best possible processes like voluntary retirement scheme and should induct young talent in technology and customer services.

In March 2010, the BSNL board approved the Pitroda panel’s recommendations on both the strategic stake sale and reduction of employee headcount. In the last three months, the BNSL board had approved plans to list the company thrice, but each time, the government was forced onto the back foot, after its employees went on strike.

In July, the telecom commission, the highest decision-making body of the DoT in its meet to clear the IPO, shied away from taking a decision.

The TC’s lack of will in the face of vehement opposition from trade unions, resulted in the body appointing yet another panel to look into the issue. This new panel has failed to submit its recommendations even a month after its deadline has expired.

The PAC became interested in BSNL’s case after the company become a shadow of its former self. BSNL has been beset with many troubles, including a snail-like expansion and labour unrest. The only telco to have had a pan-India presence a decade ago could not buy equipment required to serve the growing market, where private companies add millions of new customers every month.

New takeover code likely by year-end

AGENCIES, Sep 22, 2010, 05.35am IST

BANGALORE: The proposed company takeover code is likely to come into force by December 2010, Sebi takeover panel chairman C Achuthan said on Monday. "Perhaps it might come at the end of this year itself, Let us hope so," Achuthan told reporters on the sidelines of a conference here.

The recommendations made by the Takeover Regulatory Advisory Committee include raising the public offer trigger to 25%, from the existing 15%. Besides, the panel has also suggested that the acquirer make an open offer for the entire 100% stake in case his holding crosses the 25% threshold. The suggestions, if implemented, will replace the archaic takeover rule that was amended 23 times in the past 13 years.

Achuthan, who was appointed the head of the panel in September 2009, submitted the report to chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) C B Bhave on July 19.

Sun says completes Taro acquisition

Reuters / New Delhi September 22, 2010, 9:18 IST

India's top valued drugmaker, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, said it had completed the acquisition of a controlling stake in Taro Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.
Sun, which won an Israeli court ruling earlier this month, said in a statement dated Sept. 21 the parties to the transactions had settled all outstanding litigations among themselves.
Sun's units have increased their economic interest in Taro to 48.7 per cent and their voting rights to 65.8 per cent, the Indian firm said, but gave no details about the cost.

In a separate statement, Taro said its current board members were resigning and that appointees of Sun would become directors of Taro, effective immediately.
Taro has factories in Canada and Israel that manufacture topical creams and ointments, liquids, capsules and tablets, Sun Pharma said.
"We intend to build on Taro's market presence in US., Israel and Canada and its expertise in dermatology and pediatrics, along with specialty and generic pharmaceuticals, and over-the-counter products," Sun Chairman Dilip Shanghvi, who would also serve as chairman of the board of Taro, said in the statement.