Negotiation Climate
India's largest ever acquisition using stock as the currency was cooked up outside the country. Intense negotiations that culminated in Daiichi Sankyo largely exiting India took place in the New York offices of Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP -- the legal advisors to the Japanese company that has suffered value destruction on an epic scale since it acquired Ranbaxy in 2008.
Unusually for a deal of this size, the final negations took just two weeks. Sun's top management and their Japanese counterparts met for the first time as recently as the third week of March, just after Holi. A final agreement was in place by the end of the month. Both sides, especially Sun's 57-year-old billionaire founder Dilip Shanghvi, were paranoid that nobody should have an inkling of the plan to create the world's fifth largest specialty generic pharma company, according to people familiar with the negotiations. Shanghvi, who from past experience knew that a $3.2 billion buy would be difficult to keep under wraps in India, had told his advisors Citi and Evercore Partners that their US offices should take the lead in the deal talks. So till the last minute, very few bankers and lawyers - even those from firms that were representing him - were kept in the loop. What…show more content… Makov’s contribution was not limited to Sunday’s meeting. He played a key role in getting Daiichi to the negotiating table and ensuring the Japanese giant remained there till the deal was signed. Makov, former president and CEO of Israeli giant Teva Pharmaceutical, was brought in as chairman of Sun Pharma in 2012 after Dilip Shanghvi re-designated himself as MD. The move paid off as Makov, a respected name in the international pharmaceuticals industry, used his considerable contacts to help seal the Ranbaxy deal. Jews dominate the investment banking community in