Reckitt Benckiser outbids rivals with Rs3,263 crore bid for Paras Pharmaceuticals
13 Dec 2010
Reckitt Benckiser plc, the world's largest producer of household products and a major producer of consumer healthcare and personal products company yesterday outbid other big pharma majors in the race for Ahmedabad-based Paras Pharmaceuticals.
In 1999, Reckitt & Colman and Benckiser merged to become Reckitt Benckiser.
The Slough, UK-based company yesterday revealed that it will acquire Paras for Rs3,263 crore ($726 million).
Private equity firms, Actis Capital LLP that invests in emerging markets holding 62 per cent of closely-held Paras, Sequoia Capital, one of Google Inc and Yahoo! Inc's early investors, owning about 8 per cent and Paras chairman Girish Patel and employees holding the remaining interest will sell their stake to Reckitt Benckiser.
The announcement of the deal will be a blow to GlaxoSmithkline, Sanofi-Aventis, Johnson & Johnson and Novartis, which were also in the fray to buy Paras and had submitted their bids to Actis.
Other companies that were interested in the deal were personal-care products maker Emami Ltd, Taisho Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer, Merck, Abbott Laboratories and Bayer.
