Booster dose

Mumbai, Dec. 7: A treat is awaiting the shareholders of Torrent Pharmaceuticals. The company is planning to issue bonus shares as well as split stocks.

The board will meet on December 15 to consider these proposals, the Ahmedabad-based company told stock exchanges after trading hours today.

On Dalal Street, the scrip had notched up a 2 per cent gain and closed at Rs 674.60 against yesterday’s Rs 660.05. The shares had opened at Rs 670 and shot up to the day’s high of Rs 689.

A stock split benefits the retail shareholder as it not only improves the liquidity of a scrip but also makes it attractive. Firms like ITC Ltd, Ranbaxy Laboratories, Sun Pharmaceuticals, Bharat Forge, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories among others have announced stock splits in the past.

This year, ITC was among the few companies to announce a stock split as well as bonus shares. Its board had recommended sub-division of shares to a face value of Re 1 each from Rs 10, apart from suggesting a bonus issue in the 1:2 ratio. These proposals were later approved by shareholders.

Torrent has recorded a consolidated sales of Rs 480 crore for the first half of this year.

The company was in the news recently when it joined Novo Nordisk of Denmark to establish a new, dedicated formulation and packaging facility for insulin, exclusively for the Danish firm, at a cost of Rs 30 crore.

This facility, to be set up at Torrent’s existing manufacturing facility at Indrad in Gujarat, can be scaled up later.

Torrent had earlier acquired Heumann Pharma, the German generic unit of Pfizer Inc, for an undisclosed sum.

Following the strategic acquisition, Torrent Pharma’s consolidated global sales is expected to touch Rs 1,000 crore. As a result, the share of international business will also increase in the company’s total revenue.

At present, Torrent is integrating the operations of Heumann with the domestic one. The integration is expected to reduce production and product development costs significantly.