GLG Life Tech shares drop as legal battle looms

TORONTO, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Shares of GLG Life Tech dropped more than 10 percent on Thursday as a legal battle with one of the Canadian life-sciences company's marketing partners weighed on the stock. The company said Weider Global Nutrition, which along with GLG, formed GLG Sweet Naturals Corp to market its natural line of sweeteners, intends to sue for misrepresentation and breach of fiduciary duty. Weider alleges in a letter that the agreement positioned GLG Sweet Naturals as the exclusive marketing and sales arm of GLG's stevia products. WGN is seeking various damages. The shares of GLG were down 11.3 percent at C$2.35 on the Toronto Stock Exchange on heavy volume of some 827,000 shares. GLG said in a release that the claims were without merit, adding that the agreement did not restrict it from pursuing other opportunities. The company was not immediately available for further comment. Desjardins Securities analyst Maher Yaghi said the dispute could take time to resolve and had the potential to restrict performance of the stock. "We do not believe the dispute will deter GLG from pursuing additional contracts with new potential customers outside the joint venture -- and we continue to anticipate that announcements may occur in the first quarter of 2010," the Montreal-based analyst wrote in a note. "However, it may take some time for the dispute to be resolved, and as such, may be somewhat of an overhang on the stock." ($1=$1.06 Canadian) (Reporting by Scott Anderson) Keywords: GLG/ ([e-mail]; [phone]; Reuters Messaging: [e-mail]) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved.

The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.