Dr Reddy’s Laboratories on Wednesday won the bidding war for Betapharm, the German generic drugs company, in the largest overseas acquisition by an Indian pharmaceutical company. 3i, the British private equity group, has sold the company for €480m (US$572m) in cash.

3i bought Betapharm in 2004 for about €300m and, at the beginning of November, the private equity group confirmed that there had been a number of interested parties in Betapharm.