PRESS RELEASE

Nicholas Piramal merges Hyderabad based
Canere Actives and Fine Chemicals Pvt. Ltd.

Mumbai, 28 Jan 2004 - With a strong contracts pipeline ranging from Custom Chemical Synthesis to Finished dosage, Nicholas Piramal is poised to emerge as a leading Custom Manufacturing player. Towards this end, the Board of Nicholas Piramal has today approved the merger of Hyderabad based Canere Actives & Fine Chemicals Pvt. Ltd.

Canere is a state-of-the art, new API facility, which is ready for USFDA inspection. The Canere facility has capacities to produce 350 tons of high-end API per annum.

The facility is situated in the vicinity of NPIL’s existing USFDA-approved API facility at Digwal, Hyderabad. This will further assist a seamless and swift integration.

Canere’s facility is ideally suited for on-patent, custom manufacturing contracts that NPIL is negotiating with three of the top-20 global innovator Companies. The merger of Canere with Nicholas Piramal will expedite the contracts and save time on DMF and regulatory clearances.

NPIL will pay a total consideration of Rs 1,162.0 million consisting of an issue of 5% cumulative redeemable preference shares aggregating Rs. 383.7 million and Debt assumption of Rs. 778.3 million towards the merger of Canere.