FIIs hike stake in Ranbaxy during March quarter

FIIs have increased their stake in Ranbaxy by 1.1 percentage points to 11.79% in March quarter from 10.74% at the end of December quarter.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have acquired over 4 million shares of Ranbaxy Laboratories in the January – March 2014 quarter. They held 10.79% stake in the company in December quarter, the shareholding pattern data shows.

Orange Mauritius Investments bought 4.55 million shares, representing 1.07% stake, in the pharmaceutical major during the March quarter, as against nil holding in December quarter, data suggests.

While overseas investors have increased their stake in the company by 1.1 percentage points to 11.79% in Q4 – the highest since June 2012 quarter – the number of FIIs holding a stake in the company has decreased to 243 from 256 earlier.

On the other hand, domestic institutional investors (DII) and bodies corporate have offloaded collectively nearly a two percentage point stake in the company during the quarter.

Total DIIs stake in the company declined to 8.30% from 8.81% and of Bodies Corporate to 1.64% from 3.05% earlier, data shows.

On April 6, Sun Pharmaceuticals announced that it will buy Ranbaxy Laboratories in a $3.2 billion all-share deal, creating the world's fifth-largest generic pharma company. Under the terms of agreement, Ranbaxy shareholders will receive 0.8 share of Sun Pharma for each share of Ranbaxy.

Ranbaxy’s stock has seen a strong run up on the bourses on back of heavy volumes during the last week, rallying 33% to Rs 460 from Rs 347 levels on March 27, 2014. It had surged 46% from its recent low of Rs 315 touched on February 3, compared to 10.64% rise in benchmark index during the period.

Post the Sun Pharma’s acquisition, the stock dipped 2.2 to Rs 449 levels on profit booking in morning deals.