SHARES of Dr Reddy’s Laboratories (DRL) climbed to a 52-week high of Rs 851.55 on Thursday on speculation that a leading global pharma firm is in talks with the promoters to buy a substantial stake in the company at a premium to the existing share price.

The scrip of the country’s second-largest drugmaker ended 3.65% higher to close at Rs 821.25 on Thursday on the Bombay Stock Exchange as GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) was rumoured to be the possible buyer of DRL stake.

DRL and its promoters, however, denied the rumour. Neither has a global pharma major approached the promoters to buy the family’ stake, nor do they have a plan of selling it, Satish Reddy, managing director and COO of the company, told ET.

“The promoters have no intention of diluting their stake in the company and this is purely market speculation,” a company spokesperson added.

The GSK spokeswoman in India declined to comment. “The company does not comment on market speculation,” she said. GSK’s shares rose 1.42% to close at Rs 1,459.45 on Thursday. In June, DRL had agreed to supply GSK with over 100 branded drugs to be sold in Africa, west Asia, Asia Pacific and Latin America.

Last year, the promoters of the country’s largest drugmaker , Ranbaxy Laboratories , had sold out to Daiichi Sankyo and recently, the owners of Shantha Biotech sold their stake to Sanofi Aventis. More buyout of Indian companies cannot be ruled out as big pharma companies are aggressively looking to expand their business in emerging markets to protect their bottomlines, say analysts. “I won’t be surprised if more takeovers of Indian drugmakers take place,” said Sujay Shetty, associate director for pharmaceuticals and lifesciences at consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.