Sun Pharma and Ranbaxy in $4bn Acquisition Deal Creating India's Largest Drugmaker

A man rides a motorcycle in front of the office of Ranbaxy Laboratories at Gurgaon, on the outskirts of New Delhi.Reuters

India's Sun Pharmaceutical Industries has agreed to acquire rival Ranbaxy in an all-stock deal, creating the largest pharma company in the country.

The deal worth about $4bn (£2.4bn, €2.9bn) will also make Sun Pharmaceutical the world's fifth-largest generic drugs maker. The combined company will have operations in 65 countries and 47 manufacturing facilities across five continents.

“Ranbaxy has a significant presence in the Indian pharma market and in the US where it offers a broad portfolio of ANDAs and first-to-file opportunities. In high-growth emerging markets, it provides a strong platform which is highly complementary to Sun Pharma's strengths.”

- Dilip Shanghvi, managing director of Sun Pharma

Under the terms of the deal, Ranbaxy shareholders will receive 0.8 share in Sun Pharma for each share.

On a pro forma basis, the combined entity's revenues are estimated at $4.2bn with earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of $1.2bn for the 12-month period ended 31 December 2013.

"Ranbaxy has a significant presence in the Indian pharma market and in the US where it offers a broad portfolio of ANDAs and first-to-file opportunities. In high-growth emerging markets, it provides a strong platform which is highly complementary to Sun Pharma's strengths," Dilip Shanghvi, managing director of Sun Pharma, said in a joint statement.

"We see tremendous growth opportunities and are excited with the prospects to create lasting value for both our shareholders through a successful combination of our franchises."

"We are confident that Sun Pharma is the ideal partner to help us realize our full potential and are excited to participate in future value creation opportunities," said Arun Sahwney, managing director and CEO of Ranbaxy.

The boards of both companies and Ranbaxy's controlling shareholder, Daiichi Sankyo, have approved the transaction. Daiichi Sankyo, which owns 63.5% of Gurgaon-based Ranbaxy, will become the second-largest shareholder of Sun Pharma after the transaction.

The acquisition is expected to be accretive to Sun Pharma's cash earnings per share in the first full year. The company expects revenue and operating synergies of $250m by the third year after the completion of the transaction.

Sun Pharma expects to complete the transaction by the end of 2014, subject to approvals by shareholders in both companies and other regulatory clearances.

Troubles of Ranbaxy

Ranbaxy is currently under the scanner of US regulators who have imposed import bans on drugs manufactured at some of its facilities.

Earlier in 2014, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned Ranbaxy drugs produced at its Toansa facility in Punjab, citing "significant" manufacturing violations.

The company also received a subpoena from the US Attorney for the District of New Jersey, demanding that it produce certain documents related to the issues at the Toansa facility.

Daiichi Sankyo agreed to indemnify Sun Pharma and Ranbaxy for certain costs and expenses that may arise from the subpoena, as part of the acquisition, the statement from the companies said.

Malaysia Airlines MH370: Australia's Ocean Shield's Ping Detection 'Most Promising Lead'

A crew member aboard a Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) P3 Orion maritime search aircraft watches a smoke flare after it was deployed to mark an unidentified object while flying over the southern Indian Ocean to look for the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370Reuters

Australia has announced a potential breakthrough in the hunt for the black box of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 as the country's vessel Ocean Shield has detected multiple "pings" in the remote southern Indian Ocean.

The authorities believe the latest detection is the "most promising lead so far" in the search for the airliner which vanished on 8 March.

Retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston told reporters "the pinger locator has detected signals consistent with those emitted by aircraft black boxes".

"Clearly in the search so far this is probably the best information we've had."

Authorities are racing against time to find the flight data recorder as its battery-life runs out in 30 days.

However Houston repeatedly stressed that "funny" things do happen in oceans meaning the signals may not be from the MH370's black box.

"The first contact was held for two hours and twenty minutes before it was lost. A second contact was detected and held after the Ocean Shield turned around and was held for 13 minutes," said Houston.

The search crew of the Ocean Shield, stationed in the area, is waiting for more acoustic events - pings - in the same region in order to pinpoint the location. If the pulses are picked up again, the underwater drone, an autonomous vehicle, attached to the Ocean Shield will be deployed to map the surface below the water.

Houston also cautioned that the drone's capacity to travel underwater is only 4,500 metres deep while the current search zone is nearly of the same depth. He emphasised there are also deeper waters in the Indian Ocean.

T20 World Cup Final, India v Sri Lanka: Angry Fans Stone Yuvraj Singh's House and Accuse Him of Match-fixing

Yuvraj Singh has received a torrent of abuse after India's defeat to Sri Lanka.BCCI

Angry Indian cricket supporters have reportedly stoned the house of batsman Yuvraj Singh and accused him of match-fixing in the wake of their team's defeat to Sri Lanka in the World T20 final.

Yuvraj, who recovered from cancer just two years ago, took much of the blame for India's defeat after batting poorly during his side's innings, managing just 11 runs from 21 balls – a rate deemed extremely slow in the T20 format, which places a premium on rapid scoring.

After the match, a group of fans gathered outside the star's home in Chandigarh and pelted it with rocks, according to DNA India.

Local reports suggest police were called to the scene to disperse the mob outside the luxury property in Manimarja.

A small number of abusive fans also accused Yuvraj, who was Man of the Tournament when India won the 50-over World Cup three years ago, of accepting money to play poorly during the Sri Lanka game.

One Twitter user, Pritam Ojha, wrote: "Shame on you Yuvraj Singh. You are only responsible for this Indian loss. He should be investigated for match fixing."

Another, Kamal Amin, tweeted: "Match fixing anyone? Wouldn't surprise me the way Yuvraj plays."

There has been no official suggestion of any match-fixing, nor have there been reports of an investigation into the players' conduct during the final.

Yuvraj, one of Indian cricket's biggest stars, is renowned as a specialist in the T20 format and is feared by teams the world over for his aggressive strokeplay.

In 2012 he underwent a course of chemotherapy to beat a rare form of cancer and returned to the Indian side just four months later. He subsequently wrote a book about his illness, winning international acclaim.

In 2010 he described match-fixing as "shameful", adding:

"Nobody can ever approach me for match-fixing. My body language is so strong for my country that nobody can lay a hand on me.

"For me, playing for India is a matter of pride. I will never want to stain my nation's honour."

Experts Warn of 'Inevitable' UK Terror Attack By Returning Syria Jihadis

A British jihadist shows off his Glock pistol in a video posted on YouTube.

Experts have warned that a terrorist attack by jihadists returning radicalised from the war in Syria is "inevitable".

It is believed that hundreds of British citizens have fought in the three-year Syrian conflict, with many taking up arms for Islamist groups.

Some have posted videos online, boasting of their exploits.

There are growing fears among security services that returning fighters with combat experience are poised to launch terrorist attacks in the UK. The Telegraph reports that around 250 Syria veterans may be back in the country.

Ahead of a discussion on Syrian fighters at Chatham House this week, Raffaello Pantucci, senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, spoke of the growing danger.

"It seems almost inevitable that some sort of a threat back to the UK will come off the battlefield in Syria, something supported by the fact that security services in the UK believe they have already disrupted at least one plot with links to Syria," he told the Independent on Sunday.

Last year, security forces are reported to have foiled a Mumbai-style plot, involving killing civilians with guns in central London, which involved Syria veterans.

Richard Barrett, former head of counter-terrorism at MI6, told the paper that number of returning fighters was "almost impossible to monitor", and that some were likely to return "radicalised and a real danger to society."

The warnings come after Gilles de Kerchove, the EU's counter terrorism co-ordinator, said that European countries were failing to divert sufficient resources to deal with the problem.

In a letter to the Home Affairs Select Committee inquiry on counter terrorism, he stated that the threat from Syria veterans was "unprecedented".

"All the reports I have seen suggest that it is becoming increasingly acute," he added.

"National budgets devoted to counter-terrorism are declining across the EU. Yet the threat that we face is becoming more diverse, more diffuse, and more unpredictable."

He is calling for "concerted and co-ordinated action" by European countries to "avoid destabilisation … and the establishment of terrorist safe havens".

He said that intelligence sharing was vital as "it is not inconceivable that a foreign fighter could return to his home country with the intention of joining former comrades for an attack in another".

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370: UN Considers Live Streaming of Black Box Data

HMS Tireless will join international search for missing Malaysian Airlines flightReuters

A United Nations body is examining proposals for the live streaming of information from aircraft cockpits. In the event of an incident, this would provide investigators with vital information and help in the rapid location of planes such as MH370.

The proposed system could also spell the end for the black box, whose battery-powered ping signals fade after around 30 days.

However, the proposal by the UN's International Telcommunications Union (ITU) is opposed by many pilots, who say they would be snooped on and unfairly blamed for unexplained accidents.

The airline industry has called for the constant tracking of aircraft, possibly via satellite signals.

Information would be stored in a computing "cloud" and and be instantly and continually accessible. Details such as adjustments made by pilots as well as altitude, airspeed, direction and other information could then be monitored from the ground.

"That data is there for safety analysis," Sean Cassidy, an officer with the Air Line Pilots Association (Alpa), told the Sunday Times.

"Unfortunately, if you have this massive wave of data that's getting out there – it's not going to be safeguarded and protected – there's going to be a real rush to judgment, especially towards the pilots in event of an accident."

MH370: Black Box Locator and DroneReuters

Richard Toomer, a spokesman for the British Airline Pilots Association, said pilots would need to be given "significant reassurances" that black box data would be used only during crash investigations.

"I can understand how there would be sensitivity around the use of that data," Toomer said.

"Their [Alpa's] point about a rush to judgment is well made."

The ITU was asked to investigate the live streaming of black box information by Ahmad Shabery Cheek, minister for communications and multimedia in the Malaysian government.

Shabery spoke out recently at The International Telecommunication (ITU) World Telecommunications Development Conference in Dubai. He said the ITU should develop cutting-edge technology to facilitate transmission of flight data in real time, which would be especially useful in cases like the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.

The Malaysian government believes that data from aircraft, including from the black box, could be continually transmitted and stored in data centres on the ground, he added.

"I urge ITU to work with the industry to develop a better way to constantly monitor flight data and what was happening inside the cockpit," he said.

Hamadoun Toure, the ITU secretary general said: "We must ensure that aircraft can be tracked in real time so that such an unprecedented and tragic incident does not occur again."

Meanwhile, the search for the MH370's black box continues. Chris Bellamy, Professor of Maritime Security at the University of Greenwich in London, told Sky News that pinpointing the black box and wreckage from the Boeing 777 could still take some time as the ocean floor is "mountainous".

"The black box could be in a ravine or something like that which might cause refraction of the sound," he said.

"Things rebound, echoes happen under the water as they do in the air."