Dr Reddy's gets 93% OctoPlus shares

Dr Reddy's Laboratories (DRL), which is in the process of acquiring Netherlands-based speciality pharmaceutical company OctoPlus NV for about 27.4 million euro, has so far managed to get nearly 93 per cent shares of the firm in its favour.

"During the offer period, which ended at 1800 hours CET on February 8, 2013 (the "Closing Date"), 37,233,244 shares, representing 70.7 per cent of the shares and a value of 19,361,286.88 euro, have been tendered for acceptance under the offer," DRL said in a statement.

"The 11,575,394 shares held by the offeror at 1800 hours CET on the Closing Date, together with the shares tendered under the offer, represent a total of 92.7 per cent of the shares.

"This percentage exceeds the acceptance threshold of 92.5 per cent of OctoPlus' aggregate issued and outstanding share capital...," it added.

DRL further announced the commencement of a Post Closing Acceptance Period from February 13-26 to enable the shareholders who did not tender their shares during the offer period to sell shares.

On October 22, the Indian drug major announced that it has decided to acquire OctoPlus NV for about 27.4 million euros (about Rs 193 crore).

The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of the current financial year, G V Prasad vice chairman and chief executive officer, DRL had said earlier.

As per the agreement DRL made an open offer to purchase all outstanding shares of OctoPlus at an offer price of 0.52 euro in cash for each share.

The extraordinary general meeting of OctoPlus held last month, approved the appointment of G V Prasad and R Ananthanarayana to the Supervisory Board of the Netherlands- based pharma company.

DRL said it intends to acquire all shares in the company and in order to achieve this, the Indian drug maker aims to increase its interest in OctoPlus to a level which allows it to initiate a 'takeover squeeze-out procedure' in accordance with Dutch Civil laws.

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