Four crore shares of Syngene International - the research arm of Biocon Ltd. exchanged hands in a large trade on Wednesday. The number of shares exchanged amounts to 9.97 percent of the company's equity

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CNBC-TV18 had reported on Tuesday that Biocon planned to sell 10 percent stake in Syngene in order to fund the Viatris deal.

This is the second instance of Biocon selling stake in Syngene after the first one in September last year where it sold over 5 percent stake.

At the lower end of the price band, Biocon planned to fetch Rs 2,240 crore from the deal.

Before the transaction took place, Biocon held 64.8 percent stake in Syngene.

Biocon planned on selling further stake in Syngene to fund the cash component of its buyout of Viatris' global biosimilar business. The company had already secured $1.2 billion in debt and the rest was supposed to be funded by a combination of Biocon and Serum Institute of India.

The company had earlier indicated that it will look to replace the mezzanine financing with private equity players and a further stake sale in Syngene.

Siddharth Mittal, Managing Director and CEO, Biocon, had told CNBC-TV18 in an earlier interaction, "We do not expect to divest any more stake in Syngene."

Shares of both Syngene and Biocon have opened with gains of 2 percent each. While shares of Biocon are rebounding from close to 52-week lows, shares of Syngene have corrected more than 17 percent from their peak.

Also Read: Shares of Biocon's research arm drop after December quarter revenue growth misses estimates

(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)

First Published:Jan 31, 2023 8:35 PM IST