The Supreme Court yesterday upheld a temporary injunction against India's Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (BSE: 524715) and prohibited it from exercising a warrant to buy additional Taro Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Pink Sheets: TAROF.PK) shares.
Judge Ayala Procaccia dismissed Sun's appeal to allow the acquisition.
In September 2008 the Supreme Court granted a temporary injunction, forbidding Sun to further a tender offer to purchase Taro shares and ordered that the status quo be maintained until a judgment is rendered in the acquisition battle between the two sides. The company is caught in a struggle for control between chairman Dr. Barrie Levitt and India's Sun.
In December, Sun informed Taro that it wished to exercise a warrant given to it in 2007 to purchase more than 3.7 million additional Taro shares, for the sum of over $22 million Taro rejected Sun's request based on the temporary injunction. However, Sun appealed to the Supreme Court requesting to order that the temporary injunction does not prevent the exercise of the warrant.
The Court ruled that the temporary injunction was aimed at maintaining the status quo in Taro as at the time of its issue, i.e. in September 2008, until the appeal is decided.
In another decision rendered today in the same case, the Supreme Court also ruled in an application filed on behalf of Templeton, in which Templeton requested to be struck out as an appellant in the appeal. Judge Procaccia ruled that Templeton, which holds about 9% of the voting rights in Taro, would not be allowed to be completely struck out in the appeal, and will remain a party to the appeal, as a respondent.
Taro shares closed at $10.22 yesterday. It ended 2009 at $8.88, and has risen 15.1% in 2010.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 4, 2010
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