Sun Pharma shares tank over 10% on Daiichi stake sale

Sun Pharma shares slumped as much as 10.9 per cent on Tuesday, heading towards their biggest daily fall since June 2009 after Japan's Daiichi Sankyo started selling its stake in the Indian drugmaker.

Daiichi Sankyo kickstarted the sale of the Sun Pharma stake, worth up to $3.6 billion, on Monday, according to a person directly involved in the deal and a marketing term sheet seen by Reuters, through accelerated book building.

"The stake sale will have a negative impact on the stock as it was done at price lower than market level, and it could imply that Daiichi feels that the remediation measures will take more time", said Sapna Jhawar analyst at Reliance Securities.

"This also indicates that Ranbaxy's integration will be little challenging for Sun Pharma," she added.

Shares of the company were trading at Rs 960.80 apiece, down by 8.09 per cent on Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) at 2:23 pm.

(Reuters)