New Delhi, September 22
After nearly four years of legal wrangling, Sun Pharma today said it had finally completed the acquisition of a controlling stake in Israeli firm, Taro Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.

Subsequently, company chairman Dilip Shanghvi has taken over as the chairman of the Tel-Aviv based firm, Sun Pharma said in a statement.

The Mumbai-based firm had signed a $454 million merger deal with Taro in 2007, which was terminated a year later by the Israeli firm unilaterally. After this, both companies had filed various legal suits against each other.

"...it (Sun Pharma) has completed the acquisition of Taro pursuant to the option agreement entered into in 2007 with Israeli firm's controlling shareholders led by Taro's Chairman Barrie Levitt," the statement said.

As a result of the closing, Sun's subsidiaries have increased their economic interest in Taro to 48.7 per cent and their voting rights to 65.8 per cent, it added.

Prior to the acquisition, Sun Pharma had a 36 per cent stake in the Israeli drug firm.

Further, in connection with the closing of the option agreement, the parties to the transactions, as well as Taro's directors, had settled all outstanding litigation among themselves, it added.

Sun's acquisition of a controlling stake in Taro follows a favourable ruling from the Israel SC earlier this month, which allowed it to go ahead with an open offer it had launched in 2008.

It began its new tender offer through its subsidiary Alkaloida, on September 15, which was to close on September 28, 2010.

The Mumbai-based firm had also offered to buy out the promoters of the Tel Aviv-based firm, the Levitt family for $37 million. The family has a 12 per cent stake in Taro.

Speaking about the company's future plans for Taro, Sanghvi said: "We intend to build on Taro's market presence in the US, Israel and Canada and its expertise in dermatology and paediatrics, along with speciality and generic pharmaceuticals, and over-the-counter products." Taro has an established franchise in dermatology and topical products in the US, in addition to generic product offerings in cardiovascular, neuro-psychiatric and anti-inflammatory therapeutic categories.

It also has factories in Canada and Israel that produce topical creams and ointments, liquids, capsules and tablets dosage forms which complements Sun's current manufacturing and development capabilities for the US. — PTI 

New Delhi, September 22
Nano, the small car from the Tatas, is projected to become India's second best selling car next year, according to market research firm JD Power.

According to a report by JD Power, Nano will replace Hyundai's i10, which is slated to take the second position in 2010 after Maruti Suzuki's Alto. Tata Motor's Indica will be the third best seller this year.

"...the Nano is projected to hold the number two spot in 2011 after Tata ramps up production," JD Power Asia Pacific Forecasting Senior Market Analysts Marvin Zhu and Ammar Master said in a joint article.

"By 2017, we think the top three models will be the Alto, Nano and Maruti Suzuki WagonR," it said.

Currently Alto is the highest selling car brand in the country, selling on an average of 25,000 units every month.

As per the report, the combined sales of mini and sub-compact vehicles will be 9,97,000 units in 2010, increasing to 3.14 million units by 2017.

The size of the domestic passenger car market stood at over 15 lakh units in 2009-10 and it is growing at a rate of about 30 per cent every month in this fiscal.

While the Nano managed to draw attention of the world, of late it has been in the news for wrong reasons with six incidents of the car catching fire across the country since its commercial launch in March 2009.

JD Power further said the challenge for producers of low-cost cars in India would be to keep production costs low, while meeting rising consumer aspirations.

The government offers tax incentives to the small car buyers to promote fuel-efficient mode of transportation. Cars that do not exceed four metres in length and are powered by 1200cc petrol or 1500cc diesel engines are levied 10 per cent excise duty compared to 22 per cent for other vehicles. — PTI

New Delhi, September 22
IDFC is planning to raise up to Rs 3,400 crore through the issue of long-term bonds and the public offer is likely to open in the first week of October. The company has already filed the draft papers with SEBI for the issue, merchant banking sources said.

While officials of IDFC declined to comment on the issue, sources said it would raise up to Rs 3,400 crore through bonds.

"The public offering is likely to be launched during the first week of October," said a source.

As per the Draft Shelf Prospectus, funds raised through the bonds having face value of Rs 5,000 a piece will be utilised for infrastructure lending.

Interestingly, this will the first public issue under the new rule that allows tax benefits for investment in long-term infrastructure bonds.

In order to encourage investment flow into the all important infrastructure sector, the Budget for the current fiscal had provided for tax benefits such bonds.

Investors have been given a tax benefit of Rs 20,000 a year for investing infrastructure bond.

The Planning Commission envisages investments of $ 1 trillion in infrastructure during the 12th five-year Plan period, starting 2012, up from the targeted $500 million for the current 11th Plan period. — PTI 

New York, September 22
BlackBerry maker Research In Motion can unveil its much-awaited new tablet computer as early as next week at a developers' conference in San Francisco, says a media report.

The introduction of tablet and new operating system come at a critical time for RIM, whose BlackBerry phones are facing increasingly tough competition from Apple Inc's iPhone as well as handsets that run on Google Inc's Android operating system.

Attributing to people familiar with the plan, The Wall Street Journal reported that the new tablet called BlackPad, is scheduled for release in the fourth quarter of this year.

The device will feature a seven-inch touch screen and one or two built-in cameras. It will have Bluetooth and broadband connections but will only be able to connect to cellular networks through a BlackBerry smartphone, the report noted.

RIM will use a new operating system built by QNX Software Systems, it added.

RIM bought QNX, a maker of operating systems used in everything from cars to nuclear reactors, earlier this year.

The RIM tablet is being manufactured by Quanta Computer Inc of Taiwan and will run on chips from Marvell Technology Group Inc, the report said, citing people familiar with the tablet's manufacturing.

According to the publication, RIM said it didn't comment on rumours or speculation. — PTI

Chandigarh, September 22
Punjab has finally decided to make use of Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) for disbursal of its various social security pensions. After dilly-dallying and trying to negotiate with banks on the service charge, the state government has now decided to implement it on a pilot basis in Amritsar, Ropar and Mansa.

Amid complaints of poorly managed disbursal of these pensions by panchayats, state government officials present during the State Level Bankers Committee meeting held here today, said they had now decided to use EBT. The state government had also agreed to pay a commission of 2 per cent to the banks for disbursal of these pensions through EBT.

“Initially, one block in each of these districts will be chosen to disburse the old-age, widow, disabled and dependent pensions given by the Central Government, and the old-age pension given by the state government. Once this has been successfully tested, we will be replicating it throughout the state,” informed Chief Secretary, Punjab, S C Aggarwal.

The state government was earlier trying to negotiate with the banks, so that they reduce the service charge/commission being charged on this pension disbursal. But the disbursal through the panchayats was taking unusually long. Punjab government officials pointed out that in some instances, beneficiaries were receiving these pensions from the panchayats after 18 days from the time the amount was transferred by the state government to the banks.

It may be noted that an amount of Rs 45 crore is disbursed to 18.50 lakh beneficiaries. Through the present system of disbursal, the state is losing money in these social security schemes as a number of dead, fictitious pensioners are found to be availing these benefits. But under EBT, beneficiaries are issued smart cards and by using these cards, they can get their social security pensions from the bank directly. 

Chandigarh, September 22
Considering the slow progress under the Debt Swap Scheme, the RBI has said the scope of the scheme can be enhanced (limit of non-institutional loans to be swapped with loans from banks can be doubled) only if a consensus is reached in the Indian Banks Association (IBA).

The regional director, RBI, Jasbir Singh, said the apex bank had no objection, if the scope of the scheme was enhanced from the present Rs 50,000 per farmer to Rs 1 lakh per farmer. “It is for the IBA to reach a consensus on this issue and come to us for approval. Once all banks agree on this issue, the ceiling of Rs 50,000 can be raised to Rs 1 lakh,” he said.

The issue came up for discussion during the State Level Bankers Committee meeting for Punjab and Haryana held here today. The meeting revealed that the progress under the scheme was very slow as only 8 per cent of the targets have so far been met in Punjab and only four percent of the targets have been met in Haryana. Though the SLBC Punjab has made a target of Rs 273.92 crore for swapping debts taken from non-institutional sources with banks, only Rs 22.90 crore has been swapped. In case of Haryana, merely Rs 31.17 crore has been granted by banks under this scheme.

Bankers said though there were other considerations for the scheme not picking up in the two states, like unwillingness on part of farmers to disclose their liabilities with money lenders and their refusal to issue receipt to the debt-ridden farmer for discharge of debt.