(Bloomberg) — Novartis AG’s Sandoz family is poised to sell a roughly 1.2% stake in the Swiss pharmaceutical group.
The Sandoz Family Foundation, through the vehicle Emasan AG, is offering 26.5 million shares via an accelerated placement, according to terms seen by Bloomberg. The offering is set to price at a 2.5% discount to the stock’s prior closing price, according to the terms, making the stake worth about 2.6 billion Swiss francs ($2.9 billion).
Demand for the shares exceeded the stock being offered within an hour of the deal launching, the terms showed. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is arranging the sale. American depositary receipts of Novartis dropped to a session low after the announcement, paring gains to as little as 0.3%.
Novartis traces its roots to a firm co-founded in 1886 by Edouard Sandoz and Alfred Kern. The company merged with Ciba-Geigy to form Novartis almost three decades ago. In 2023, the group spun out its generic and biosimilar operations into a new company called Sandoz Group AG.
Novartis doesn’t expect any significant change in the shareholder base or the strategic direction of the company as a result of the sale, the pharmaceutical company’s spokesperson said. A spokesperson for the Sandoz Family Foundation said diversification was the reason for the stake sale.
Some of Novartis’ patents are set to expire this year, including top-selling heart medicine Entresto which is likely to face generic competitors in the US.
Emasan is among the largest individual shareholders in the company with a roughly 4.1% stake, according to a recent company governance report and data compiled by Bloomberg.
The sale comes amid a flurry of selldowns in European companies as shareholders move to take advantage of high stock prices. So far this year, the region has seen about $8.6 billion of transactions, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Elsewhere on Tuesday, private equity group EQT AB was offering a stake of around 6% in Azelis Group NV. Kirkbi Invest A/S, a vehicle for LEGO’s founding family, was also selling roughly 5% of Denmark’s ISS A/S, according to terms seen by Bloomberg.
–With assistance from Jan-Henrik Förster.
(Updates with additional details on selling holder, deal updates and company history, starting in second paragraph.)
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