Ipca Labs picks up 10% stake in Mangalam Drugs
Mumbai-Based Ipca Labs has picked up a little over 10% equity in Mangalam Drugs and Organics, a small-sized bulk drugs and chemicals company.
According to information disclosed to the BSE under Sebi guidelines, Ipca Labs bought a total of 13.5 lakh shares, or 10.3%, of Mangalam Drugs through off market purchases on October 19. The stake has partly been acquired from one of the promoters of the company Ashok R Boob. Mr Boob together with persons acting in concert sold 9.3%, bringing down their stake to 3.3% of the equity capital of 1.3 crore shares.
“The stake is acquired just for investment purpose. There is no intention to take-over the company,” MR Chandurkar, MD, Ipca Labs told ET. He also said the stake bought is not exactly 10.3% as mentioned in the BSE bulletin but less than that. Mr Chandurkar declined to give further details about the acquisition.
Mangalam Drugs officials were not available for comments.Shares of Mumbai-based Mangalam Drugs hit a 5% upper circuit to end at Rs 25.1 while Ipca Labs was down 1.9% at Rs 445 on Thursday. The scrips, in fact, have been on an upswing for the past few weeks, rising 53% and 21%, respectively in one month. Both companies manufacture chloroquine phosphate, an organic chemical product which is used as an anti-Malaria drug.
According to the latest results available for the quarter ended June 30 ’06, Mangalam Drugs posted a flat net profit of Rs 31 lakh while net sales fell to Rs 23 crore from Rs 25.5 crore during the quarter ended June 30 ’05.
The Rs 800-crore Ipca Labs recorded a 6% decline in net profit to Rs 24.3 crore even as net sales rose 7% to Rs 221 crore during April-June quarter. Mangalam Drugs is a multi-product company producing chemicals such as perfumery, organic and inorganic chemicals, disperse dye intermediates, bulk drugs and bulk drugs intermediates. The Rs 100-crore company earns about 60% of its revenues from bulk drugs business while chemical products account for the remaining 40%.
Based on the shareholding pattern filed for the quarter ended September 30 ’06, promoters held 50.6% while the public accounted for 41% of Mangalam Drugs’ equity capital. Corporate bodies held 7.2% stake in the company.
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