Dilip Shanghvi overtakes Mukesh Ambani as richest Indian

MUMBAI: Shrugging off the weakness in broader market indices, stocks of drug major Sun Pharma and group companies Sun Pharma Advanced Research (SPARC), and Ranbaxy hit new highs on Wednesday.

This has resulted in Sun Pharma Group’s promoter Dilip Shanghvi moving ahead of Reliance Industries’ Mukesh Ambani to become the richest Indian. Excluding Ranbaxy’s valuation (its merger with Sun Pharma is yet to be completed), Shanghvi’s net worth after Wednesday’s gains was Rs 1.4 lakh crore. Ambani’s net worth was Rs 1.3 lakh crore.

The trigger for the gain was SPARC receiving US FDA approval for a product to be manufactured at Sun’s facility in Halol. This is the first approval from this facility after FDA had issued procedural observations last September. In February, Sun’s management had guided for a couple of approvals from the facility during the current quarter.

The latest approval, in line with the guidance, has triggered buying in all Sun Pharma companies. Sun’s stock gained 6.6% hitting a new high of Rs 1,035 and helping it to enter the Rs 2 lakh crore market capitalisation club. SPARC appreciated 4.3% and Ranbaxy rose 7.1%.

A day before, Sun had announced the acquisition of the opiates business of British drug major GlaxoSmithKline. Strategically significant, the deal strengthens Sun’s presence in the therapeutic segment of controlled substances.

Since the Budget, Sun Pharma’s stock has gained 14%. It is now trading at over 34 times its earnings of the last four quarters. While the valuation appears to be rich, it is still below the historical P/E range of 40-50 indicating scope for price appreciation.