Corporate / M&A

Luthra & Luthra has advised Abbott Laboratories in its 20 per cent open offer of the Indian subsidiary of Solvay Pharmaceuticals as part of the €5.2bn global acquisition of the Belgium-based pharma company.

Baker & McKenzie acted as international counsel to its long standing-client Abbott, which started last year in October to acquire Solvay, which was advised by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.

As part of the global acquisition Luthra & Luthra and Thakker & Thakker have handled the Indian elements, which included due diligence of the target.

Luthra & Luthra senior partner Mohit Saraf, partners Sundeep Dudeja and Aniket Sengupta, along with senior associate Shishir Vayttaden and associates Jitender Tanikella and Siddharth Shukla constituted the Indian team for Abbott for this transaction.

Saraf said: “It was a very interesting and challenging transaction. We advised on every aspect of Indian law in relation to the global acquisition.”

The acquisition of India-based entity Solvay Pharma's global parent companies triggered an indirect acquisition of the Indian company, which was made by an open offer valued at more than Rs 300 crore (€48m).

Partners Vikas Srivastava and S R Patnaik also assisted the Luthra & Luthra team on the tax law side.

Thakker & Thakker's Bijesh Thakker led for Solvay in India.

The global integration of Abbott and Solvoy’s pharmaceuticals businesses will increase Abbott's presence in key global emerging markets with a large and complementary portfolio of pharmaceutical products.