Sun Pharmaceutical to take Taro Pharmaceutical private for $571 million

MUMBAI, India—Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. hasannounced that it will merge with Hawthorne, N.Y.-based Taro PharmaceuticalIndustries Ltd. and take the company private in deal worth roughly $571 million.Sun, which currently owns 66 percent of the company and all of its founders'shares, giving Sun 77.5 percent of the voting rights, had previously offered $24.50per share but sealed the current deal by raising that offer to $39.50 pershare.

When the merger is completed, Taro will become aprivate company merged with Sun Pharmaceutical affiliates and will be delistedfrom the New York Stock Exchange.

Founded in 1950 by Israeli pharmacists andAmerican physicians, the company's name is taken from the Hebrew words forpharmaceutical industry and has become since then a multinational, science-basedpharmaceutical company "dedicated to meeting the needs of its customers throughthe discovery, development, manufacturing and marketing of the highest qualityhealthcare products." The company has a manufacturing plant in Haifa, Israel.

The history between Sun and Taro is a rocky one,with Sun Pharmaceuticals having acquired control of the company after a contentiouslegal battle with Taro's previous controlling shareholders in 2010. With thecurrent merger deal, Sun Pharmaceuticals has indicated that it will not closethe Haifa plant, nor transfer operations to India, and that it wants to investin Israel. Some have questioned this commitment, as Sun had also said in thepast that it would not take Taro private, but now plans to do just that.

Taro's recent first-quarter financial resultsshowed revenue gains of 42.6 percent to $159.2 million from $111.6 million inthe same quarter the previous year. Cash flow from operations fell to $19.2million in that same quarter from the previous Q1's level of $33.3 million, andit increased its research and development spending by 47 percent to $11.5million.

Sun, for it's part, is an international specialitypharma company with a large presence in the United States and India but also afootprint across more than 40 other markets. The U.S. market is Sun's biggestone, where it has built what it characterizes as "a strong  pipeline of generics." According to Sun,merging Taro into its operations adds a strong dermatology range to thisportfolio.