Mumbai, March 27: Generic drug maker Mylan Labs wants to delist Matrix Laboratories, the American pharmaceutical firm’s local subsidiary.

Mylan is planning to acquire around 29 per cent of Matrix Labs at a price of up to Rs 150 per share.

Mylan holds around 71.16 per cent in Matrix through MP Laboratories of Mauritius. At the price of Rs 150 per share, the US-based pharma company will have to pay around Rs 675 crore if its offer for a voluntary delisting is successful.

The purchase of shares will be through a reverse book-building process.

The announcement led to the shares of Matrix being locked at the upper circuit today.

On the BSE, the scrip closed at Rs 141.40, a gain of 20 per cent over its last close. Based on today’s closing price, the offer price represents a premium of 6 per cent.

Mylan said the objective of the delisting proposal was to provide it with greater flexibility in managing its global technical and commercial operations and to provide an exit opportunity to the public shareholders of Matrix Labs.

The announcement comes two days after Novartis said it would make an open offer to acquire additional equity in its Indian subsidiary — Novartis India Ltd — at a price of Rs 351 per share. If the response to the open offer is good, Novartis will end up with a 90 per cent holding in Novartis India. The offer will represent a total value of up to Rs 440 crore.

Market circles speculate that Novartis may also be interested in delisting Novartis India at a later date.

It is felt that there could be more such moves in the coming days as the attractive valuations offer a good opportunity for promoters to increase their holding in domestic companies or even delist them.