India's Torrent Pharma says nothing to disclose on Cipla stake buy report

BENGALURU (Reuters) - India's Torrent Pharmaceuticals on Friday said it has no information requiring disclosure under listing regulations, after the Economic Times reported that it was in talks to buyout the stake of rival Cipla's top shareholders.

Torrent said it "did not comment on speculative reports in the absence of verified data," and that it was not in a position to comment on the movement in its share price.

Torrent Pharma is interested in buying out top shareholder Hamied family's 33.47% stake in Cipla and is trying to put together financing for the purchase, ET reported.

The company has reached out to private equity firms including Advent International, Bain Capital, Warburg Pincus and CVC Capital, for a minority stake in a consortium, the ET report said.

Additionally, it is also in talks with foreign banks such as Standard Chartered and JP Morgan for acquisition financing, and domestic shadow banks and mutual funds in share-backed promoter financing, the report added.

Shares of Torrent Pharma and Cipla were down 3.1% and 0.6% in afternoon trading, respectively.

Cipla, which makes anti-allergic drug Cetirizine and generic versions of respiratory drugs Advair and Albuterol, had in July issued a clarification saying there is no information to disclose as per listing regulations regarding a stake sale.

(Reporting by Navamya Ganesh Acharya in Bengaluru and Rishika Sadam in Hyderabad; Editing by Janane Venkatraman and Varun H K)