India to Block $1.3 Billion Chinese Pharmaceutical Takeover, Sources Say

Tuesday, August 1, 2017

India is poised to reject Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group Co.’s proposed $1.3 billion takeover of an Indian drugmaker, according to people familiar with the matter, scuppering the biggest-ever Chinese acquisition in the country.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has decided to block the Chinese firm’s purchase of an 86 percent stake in Gland Pharma Ltd., said the people. The companies haven’t been formally notified yet of the move, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private.

Tensions between India and China — the South Asian nation’s biggest trading partner — have escalated amid a renewed spat over territory in a remote area of the Himalayas, one of the most serious flareups since a border war in 1962. A collapse of the acquisition would be a setback for Fosun Pharma, which had sought Gland Pharma’s stable of generic injectable medicines and facilities approved to manufacture products for sale in the U.S.

Source: Bloomberg (link opens in a new window)

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