Media interviews

Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited, India's largest pharmaceutical company, is an integrated, research based, international pharmaceutical company producing a wide range of quality, affordable generic medicines, trusted by healthcare professionals and patients around the world. The Company has customers in more than 125 countries and ground operations in 49 countries.

In June, Ranbaxy's CEO and Managing Director Malvinder Singh shook both corporate India and the global pharmaceutical market by announcing the sale of his family's stake in Ranbaxy to Japanese pharma giant Daiichi Sankyo for $4.6 billion in cash. This is the largest ever takeover of a listed Indian company.

Following this announcement, College Hill was charged with organising key media interviews for Mr. Singh, during a flying three day visit to the UK.

Our Approach

College Hill first of all assessed the availability of some key journalists who were known to be interested in the Ranbaxy story, in order to alert them to possible timings and secure priority interview slots. The team then worked at short notice to finalise and coordinate interviews with key media targets and Mr. Singh's limited availability during his visit.

In advance of the meetings, College Hill provided the journalists with the latest newsflow from Ranbaxy and also produced a briefing pack for Mr. Singh containing information on each journalist and questions that they might ask.

On the morning of his arrival, we were advised that a second major news story would be announced worldwide at 12.00 hrs that day - Ranbaxy had reached a settlement of its long-running international patent dispute with Pfizer over Atorvastatin (Lipitor). This was a major international news story for the pharmaceutical industry. On the way from the airport to the first interview at CNBC's offices in London, interviews were scheduled and rescheduled and briefing notes prepared.

Mr. Singh was also accompanied during each interview so that supplementary information could be provided if needed.

On the day of the Lipitor announcement we were able to arrange two live television interviews on CNBC and meetings and telephone interviews with Reuters, the Financial Times, The Daily Telegraph and the Wall Street Journal.

These initial interviews were followed by face to face briefings with the Financial Times, SCRIP and the Sunday Telegraph. Strong coverage was achieved immediately in all titles, with a major personal profile on Malvinder Singh published in the business section of that weekend's Sunday Telegraph.

Given the length of the Sunday Telegraph profile, Mr. Singh was able to highlight the strategic benefits of both the Daiichi Sankyo deal and the Pfizer settlement, putting them in the wider context of Ranbaxy's global growth strategy. He was also able to directly counter some of the speculation and address some of the concerns that had been aired about the sale of his family's stake - specifically about Ranbaxy remaining an Indian Company and his plans to stay at the helm for the long-term. These comments were picked up and extensively covered in the Indian press.

June 2008

To discuss our capability in this area please contact:
Katja Stout, Partner, Dr Jon Davies, Senior Consultant, or Geoff Potter, Senior Consultant.
+44 (0)20 7457 2020
jon.davies[at]collegehill.com
katja.stout[at]collegehill.com

© 2008 College Hill Associates | Registered in England No 1036926 / VAT No 245666930 | Legal

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