The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is examining trades in the Ranbaxy stock
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is examining trades in the Ranbaxy stock, that took place before Sun Pharma acquired the company from Daiichi Sankyo in a $4-billion deal, announced on April 7.
“It is very much on our radar,” a senior Sebi official said, adding that the study of the trades could take some time and that any action, if warranted, would be taken subsequently.
The Ranbaxy scrip had jumped as much as 20.09% on the BSE in four trading days leading up to the deal. The troubled company, which is firefighting various manufacturing issues identified by the USFDA in four of its plants, has seen a drop of approximately 18.5% in its market value in the one year preceding April 2, 2014.
On Tuesday, the Andhra Pradesh High Court issued an order to the BSE and the NSE to maintain interim status quo on the acquisition after a group of individual investors filed a petition with the court.
The petition asked the HC to direct Sebi to investigate claims of alleged insider trading of Ranbaxy shares and take appropriate action against Sun Pharma and SilverStreet Developers, a limited-liability partnership that is an indirect subsidiary of Sun Pharma.
SilverStreet held 59 lakh Ranbaxy shares as on December 31, 2013, and upped its stake by 10 lakh in the first quarter of CY2014. It held 1.64% of Ranbaxy stock or approximately 69.67 lakh shares as on March 31, 2014.
Meanwhile, Sun Pharma issued an official statement on Wednesday. “The matter related to purchase of shares of Ranbaxy Laboratories does not violate insider trading rules. With regards to the petition filed, the matter is sub judice and, hence, we cannot make specific comments, but we would be taking appropriate action as advised by our legal counsel,” Sun Pharma's official spokesperson said in a statement.
Ranbaxy did not respond to an email requesting comments on the court order.
Source: http://www.financialexpress.com/news/sebi-says-it-is-looking-into-trades-in-ranbaxy-stock/1245881
