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The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) has cleared UK-based pharma major GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK) proposal to invest Rs 6,400 crore in its Indian arm to raise its stake in the company.
The FIPB, headed by Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) Secretary Arvind Mayaram, also cleared a proposal by Singapore-based pharma company Hospira to bring Rs 1,039 crore into its India operations.
An FDI proposal by Japanese company Hitachi to bring in investments worth Rs 1,540 crore got the green signal too.
Pharma major Lupin’s FDI proposal, however, was not cleared by the FIPB on Monday.
The Singapore subsidiary of UK-based GSK proposes to buy 24.33 per cent stake or 20.6 million equity shares in GSK Pharma Ltd through an open offer. GSK Pharmaceuticals is already majority owned and controlled by the GSK Group.
After the fresh equity infusion, holding of the promoter group firms in the Indian subsidiary will go up to 75 per cent from the current 50.67 per cent. The open offer for tendering of shares is scheduled to remain open from February 7-21.
Despite objections by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) over indiscriminate inflow of FDI in existing pharmaceutical projects, foreign investments in the sector during the April-October period totalled Rs 5,956 crore ($1.08 billion).
GSK’s FDI induction is the largest in the pharma sector in the country so far.
amiti.sen@thehindu.co.in
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