If this deal took the company to a different level, it would put us in a stronger position to fight back many of the challenges. I asked myself, if my father had been in my shoes, what would he do? The answer was loud and clear: take the right call for the company. It was a tough call. But once I was convinced, I carried the rest of the family with me. But the company hasn’t changed; it won’t change except it will become much stronger. The company’s core, its culture and Indianness have not changed.

•Sunny Verma: Can you clarify the amount of inflow resulting from this deal and how its approvals are going through?

Everything is on track. Approvals are also coming in on time. Actually, this deal has seen one of the fastest clearances for an open offer and the system has worked very efficiently in this case. In terms of value, the inflow figure is around

Rs 22,000 crore. At Rs 737 a share, we did not get a bad price. In fact, we got a fantastic price. There are two separate aspects here. I continue to be in the business, continue to run Ranbaxy as a professional CEO. This is the largest transaction in Indian Inc for any listed company. It’s a path-changing transaction in the pharma landscape, globally. It’s the first time that a young man of 35 years, who has been very aggressive in buying companies, decided to become a manager in the company he had previously owned. The great thing is that we put our terms on the table; we didn’t budge where we didn’t want to budge and we got what we wanted, whether this was in terms of price or in terms of the management of the company.

... contd.