Of Dr Reddy’s, a fabled sellout and non-denials

For some time now, the buzz on the street has been that the grand old man of Indian pharma, Kallam Anji Reddy, has had enough of son versus son-in-law.
That is, he doesn’t see a future for the family in Dr Reddy’s Laboratories because son K Satish Reddy and son-in-law G V Prasad are rarely on the same page strategically or otherwise.
Of course the family will come down like a tonne of bricks on any talk, especially from pen-pushers, of filial fractures.
But the stock market is a different animal: it’s wont to game using scuttlebutt, and a Reddy’s sellout a la the Singhs of Ranbaxy keeps popping up like, ahem, Bill Clinton.
Like on Friday.
At the company’s 26th annual general meeting, at least two shareholders - Ashok of Hyderabad and S Rajesh of Chennai - asked the all-important question pointedly, with the intention of eliciting a response from either Anji Reddy, chairman, G V Prasad, vice-chairman or Satish Reddy, COO.
There were no direct, clean-cut “NO! NONSENSE!’ or some such.
Only non-denials.
“We are reading in newspapers that the company is up for sale. Someone from the company should clarify and there is no point in hiding the fact,” a shareholder said at the meeting. “There is still no answer from the management.”
Following the meeting, the media once again converged on Anji Reddy in an attempt to prise out a response.
Again a non-denial. “I have nothing to say about that,” is all the founder would utter.
The prolonged buzz has been that British major GlaxoSmithKline plc is interested in the company, as are a few other multinationals.
Glaxo, goes the whisper on the Street, wants to wrest back the No. 1 tag in India from Abbott, which climbed to pole position using Nicholas Piramal’s shoulders.
Glaxo already has an alliance with Dr Reddy’s for production and marketing of generics in the emerging markets.
Another giant, this time from the US - Eli Lilly - is also seeking a potential takeover target in India, investment banking sources have told DNA Money earlier.
Then there is also another buzz on the Street - about a key member of the Reddy family talking to potential investors to offload a part of his shareholding.
Market sources said investors were willing to buy the shares at Rs 1,700 apiece, while the potential offloader was demanding Rs 2,400 a share.
It would be nice if the first family cleared the air on which way they were headed.