The issue between Sun Pharmaceutical Industries and Israel’s Taro Pharmaceuticals has been in the main headlines from quite some time now. Though the former is still very keen to takeover the latter, but the legal fight between the two could delay the process. The news was broken by the Mumbai based Sun Pharma’s chairman and managing director, Dilip Shanghvi, who ruled out an out-of-court settlement with Taro Pharma.

Shanghvi reported, “Going by Taro’s behaviour and (promoters) the Levitt family’s passion for filing court cases, it appears that the resolution of all issues would take some time.” He further added that Sun Pharma had moved positively to protect its interests and further exercised the option to buy out all of Taro’s shares. He clarified, “To secure long-term interests, we are committed to completing this transaction.”

Taro had filed two cases against Sun Pharma in Tel Aviv court, after the merger agreement was terminated. One of the cases was to make Indian company comply with special tender offer rules under Israeli laws. The second case filed was to stop it from interfering in the sale of Taro’s Israeli facility.

On the contrary, Sun Pharma had filed counter case against Taro in the New York Supreme Court. The motive behind the case was to make the Israeli company’s controlling shareholders fulfill their promises under the option agreement and also to the termination of the merger agreement to be declared as ‘improper’.

 In the April-June quarter, Sun Pharma’s net profit grew 121% to Rs 501.5 crore over the same quarter last year. Net sales of the company grew 66% to Rs 1,047.20 crore while the international business was up 134%. The US generic business of the company grew 206% year-on-year.