Ranbaxy seeks to downplay Malvinder exit

25 May 2009

Malvinder Singh's stepping down as Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd's chairman, chief executive and managing director wasn't linked to the company's operational performance, the new chief executive and managing director, Atul Sobti, said on Monday after the Ranbaxy board was reconstitiuted. "Malvinder's exit was more a decision based on the future," Sobti had said yesterday.

In developments that took the market by surprise on Sunday, Tsutomu Une, a representative of Japanese drugmaker Daiichi Sankyo - which owns 63.92 per cent of Ranbaxy - was named the new chairman. Daiichi was reportedly unhappy with Singh's performance and wanted a greater say in the management.

However, Singh, a scion of the family that founded the company, said in an interview to Hindu Businessline, ''No one has forced me to resign. I have stepped down on my own. If I had quit two years from now even then you would have said that this is a sudden move.

''I feel that this is the right time for me to move on. This has to be seen in the right perspective. I will still be around and support the company.''

Sobti told the media on Sunday evening after the new board was constituted, "Our priority is to implement Ranbaxy's business plans effectively and accelerate them in achieving our vision of a hybrid business model. The hybrid model will get the best from both the sides - from Daiichi manufacturing, IP (intellectual property) and innovative capability, and from Ranbaxy, research and generics push."

New chairman Une, who has been with Ranbaxy since December 2008 as a non-executive director, said there is no change in the concept of Ranbaxy's hybrid business model and "the change will accelerate the growth of the company".