Elder Pharma gains on report co to sell formulations biz

Moneycontrol Bureau

Shares of Mumbai-based Elder Pharmaceuticals jumped 5 percent to hit the upper circuit limit of Rs 309.50 on NSE on Wednesday after a report in the Economic Times paper said global pharma majors like Sanofi Aventis, Novartis and GlaxoSmithKline were in the race to buy-out the debt ridden company's domestic formulations business. While Sanofi and GSK have put in non-binding bids, Novartis has signed a non-disclosure agreement, the report said, adding that even a few private equity players planned to join the bidding process. Earlier this month, the paper had reported that the whole company was up for sale and Elder had mandated Ernst & Young and Japanese investment bank Nomura to manage a formal process to find a buyer. Alok Saxena, the company's MD had termed that earlier report as a "market rumour." Elder Pharma has a debt of around Rs 1,300 crore. In FY13, the company reported a net profit of Rs 81 crore on revenue of Rs 1,457 crore. It paid Rs 107 crore in finance costs.