What Malvinder Singh plans to do

Hours after announcing their decision to sell Ranbaxy to Japan's Daiichi, Malvinder Mohan Singh spoke to Joe C Mathew. Singh said they will focus on Fortis Healthcare and Religare Financial Services after the acquisition.

Do you still cherish the desire to see Ranbaxy as a top-five global generic company?

I do. Infact, the acquisition has made it much easier. The Daiichi-Ranbaxy combine will become the 15th biggest pharmaceutical company in the world. The hybrid growth model that we have opted for will offer tremendous growth chances.

Does that mean Ranbaxy will continue as Daiichi's "generic arm"? Much like what generic firm Sandoz is to Novartis?

True. Ranbaxy will continue to grow as a research-based generic company of Daiichi.

What would be the fate of your collaborative and contract research programmes? Will other research-oriented drug majors be interested in drug discovery deals with a subsidiary of an innovator company?

Ranbaxy's research alliances will continue and we expect to sign more such deals in future. The deal happened just this afternoon. Our existing research partners will be informed about the deal very soon.

How do you feel working for a company which you owned for long?

Ownership and management are quite different for me. Even when my dad owned Ranbaxy, I joined the company as a management trainee. I did not take up a leadership position in the management even when he died. Ownership does not make any difference to me. I am here to fulfil my dreams and the path I have chosen now is to help me achieve this better.

Post-acquisition, how much money will be left with the Singh family? What are your investment plans?

Approximately Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion). We are yet to think about the investments. However, our primary interests are in two entities - Fortis Healthcare and Religare Financial Services.