Reports that Cipla and Asian buyout fund PAG are looking to acquire a big chunk of pharmaceutical major Wockhardt's domestic formulation business are picking up steam. Habil F Khorakiwala, founder, chairman and group CEO of Wockhardt, spoke to CNBC-TV18 about the developments at the company.

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On reports of the impending sale, he said: “I would not like to comment on the media speculation but the fact is that we are looking to raise some equity and cash through some kind of restructuring of the organisation.”

On the question of a timeline for the restructuring, Khoarkiwala said: “It would be rather soon in next month or so.”

He revealed that sales are picking up in comparison to the previous quarter. “This quarter our sales are up compared to previous quarter by about 9-10 percent. Secondly, we have been managing our expenses over last 9-12 months and that has also shown a significant reduction in our cost of operation. That is how we have become fit and trim and that is something which would be very sustainable. Our margins for the quarter is among the highest we had in recent times at 17.7 percent as a result of our product mix primarily. Last quarter it was 12.8 percent and last year same quarter it was 9.4 percent. So there is a very significant increase in our EBITDA.

“We want to do this restructuring once so that we are comfortable for next few years to build our business on one hand and invest in research what is necessary."

He also divulged details about Wockhardt's Waluj plant. “We have completed most of remediation measures and we are in communication with USFDA

On India business, he said: “India business has three components, one is our branded business which is not down very significantly — it is down by less than single digit. The generic business that we had, more or less we have discontinued that and that is also showing a decline. Third element was some Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) business domestically is down but internationally it is up.

“Globally our focus is on three-four big areas. One is pharma business which is very important worldwide including India. Second in terms of therapy area antibiotics since we have the research programme with the new chemical entity (NCE). Third is biosimilars especially the insulin Glargine and other analogues are important because USFDA has come out with new guidelines a month back and we are seriously considering to enter the US market with our biosimilars. Our basic strategy is that we would be marketing ourselves in the USA and in India and we would be looking for partners in the rest of the world. Our strategy is to do a global clinical trial including US, Europe and China. Once we get the approvals in various markets, we will be looking for marketing and distribution partners worldwide,” he added.