Sharemasterindia.com: Sun Pharma, India's largest drugmaker by sales, has reportedly asked 18 of its top executives to leave the company. The high-ranking executives earlier worked with Ranbaxy Labs, the company Sun Pharma acquired from Japan's Daiichi Sankyo in April 2014.
According to media reports, Indrajit Banerjee, president and CFO of Ranbaxy and Yugal Sikri, country head (India) Ranbaxy are among those that have been asked to resign from the company. All 18 executives have been given a severance package, the reports said.
"The company has made and will continue to make all efforts to utilise total available talent in the most appropriate manner. If there are a few employees who could not be positioned appropriately the organisation will make all attempts to handle the same in a fair, transparent and sensitive manner," Sun Pharma said in a statement.
The development comes at a time when Sun Pharma's profits are under pressure because of costs related to integrating Ranbaxy. Sun Pharma's Q4 net profit of Rs 888 was below Reuters estimate of Rs 1,609 crore and lower than Rs 1,587 crore number the company posted in the corresponding quarter last year.
Sun Pharma faces an uphill task in turning around Ranbaxy's business, which has been posting losses for months as all of its manufacturing plants in India are barred from exporting to the US due to quality control issues, analysts say.
For the first time in years, Sun Pharma declined to give a guidance for fiscal 2016, citing "complexities involved in merging two large companies".
As of 09.47 a.m., Sun Pharma shares traded 0.64 per cent higher at Rs 849.30, in line with the healthcare sub-index on the BSE.
