Mumbai, Sept. 8: India’s Sun Pharmaceutical today said it had won the legal battle with Taro, paving the way for the takeover of the Israeli firm.

The Supreme Court of Israel has dismissed the appeal of Taro Pharma and withdrawn its temporary order that prohibited the closing of Sun’s open offer before its ruling, the Indian drug maker said in a filing to the BSE.

Sun Pharma, which is the single largest shareholder in Taro with a 36 per cent stake, has been trying to take control of the company ever since their $454-million merger deal was unilaterally terminated by the Israeli firm in 2008.

After this, both the companies had filed cases against each other, and the matter was pending in the Supreme Court of Israel.

In 2008, Sun Pharma had launched an open offer to buy the additional shares of Taro. This was challenged in the Israeli apex court, which prohibited Sun from closing the offer until it gave a ruling.

Today, the court said the Israeli special tender offer rules did not apply to the offer by Sun’s arm Alkaloida Chemical Company Exclusive Group Ltd to buy all outstanding ordinary shares of Taro for $7.75 apiece. It also awarded Sun expenses and declared that Taro had acted in “bad faith”.

The offer will expire on September 14 following which Alkaloida will provide a subsequent offering period of not less than 10 business days or more than 20 business days.

In December, Taro had said that Sun attempted to exercise a warrant to purchase approximately 3.7 million additional Taro shares at $6 apiece.

Scrip show

Shares of Sun Pharma today gained over 2 per cent on the BSE. The stock opened on a strong note and soared to Rs 1,756.25, up 2.05 per cent, on the BSE. During the day, it zoomed 6.44 per cent to hit a month’s high of Rs 1,831.95.