



Why Sun Pharma’s hefty bid for Organon has divided investors
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. India’s largest drugmaker Sun Pharma is reportedly bidding for American pharmaceutical company Organon in a deal that could potentially be worth $10 billion, which would make it the largest overseas acquisition by an Indian pharma company. The drugmaker has secured $10–14 billion in temporary ‘bridge loans’ to fund the move.
The potential deal has split the market, pitting those who trust chairperson Dilip Shanghvi’s track record of value creation against skeptics wary of Organon’s $8.9 billion debt pile and recent governance issues. Organon was spun off from Merck in 2021 for its women’s health, legacy general medicine brands, and biosimilars businesses. The deal would push Sun further beyond generics into the higher-margin specialty/innovative branded markets, a longstanding goal of the company.
The developments were first reported by Economic Times in two reports on Monday and Tuesday. In an exchange filing on Monday, Sun Pharma termed the reports “speculative in nature". Sun Pharma and Organon did not respond to Mint’s emailed queries.
While SunPharma’s stock price was little changed on Monday, it closed 3.23% lower at ₹1,621.30 on the NSE on Tuesday over concerns around the deal valuation, as well as Organon’s debt and recent governance troubles. The Nifty Pharma index shed 1.84% on Tuesday. However, some investors applauded the audacious bet, pointing to Sun Pharma’s strong management team led by Shanghvi, and its track record of extracting value from acquisitions.
If the deal goes through, Organon will bring revenue of about $6.4 billion with a healthy Ebitda of $1.96 billion (in FY24). However, it also has a hefty $8.9 billion of debt for Sun to take on. “This is not a growth
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