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Novartis become officially spinning the Alcon eye care business On April 9, the shares of the company, which was once located in Fort Worth, Texas, will be sold on the New York Stock Exchange and the SIX Swiss Exchange, Novartis announced this morning.
Current Novartis shareholders will receive one share of the new Alcon Business for every five shares owned by Novartis. Alcon trades under the ticker symbol ALC.
As Alcon emerges under the Novartis umbrella, the company will be backed by a number of banks with a $ 3.5 billion debt financing plan, the Swiss pharmaceutical company said. Alcon has been rated Baa2 and BBB by Moody’s Investor Service and S&P Global Ratings, respectively. The company also received a stable outlook. Bank of America Merrill Lynch and UBS AG advise Novartis on the transaction.
Novartis announced plans to outsource Alcon in June last year into an independent company. The spin-off will allow both Novartis and Alcon to focus on individual growth strategies, Novartis said at the time. Vas Narasimhan, Chief Executive Officer of Novartis, has urged the company to focus more on its pharmaceuticals business rather than medical devices or contact lens products such as those developed by Alcon. Alcon was founded in Fort Worth in 1947 as a small ophthalmic pharmaceutical company. Novartis acquired Alcon from Nestle in 2011 for $ 52 billion. When Alcon was acquired by Novartis, the company’s focus was on surgical devices, ophthalmic medicines and products such as contact lenses and eye drops. The drugs have been moved to Novartis’ pharmaceuticals division and are expected to remain under the Novartis umbrella after the spin-off is complete.
In September it was announced that Alcon’s management would do so Leave your long-standing home in Texas for Switzerland, the home of Novartis. Alcon’s corporate headquarters are moving from Fort Worth, Texas to Geneva, Switzerland. The Swiss city will be the primary residence for Alcon’s corporate governance and other corporate and commercial functions. Corporate headquarters are now in the same location as Alcon’s regional Europe, Middle East and Africa office. At the time the decision was made to relocate headquarters to Switzerland, David Endicott, Alcon’s chief executive officer, said the location of the new headquarters will help “continue to expand Alcon’s global size and better serve our customers to use”.
Alcon’s current global headquarters in Fort Worth will continue to be an important operational, commercial and innovative hub for the company. Alcon has struggled with its sales for the past few years, but has seen positive growth recently. Last year, the company had annual sales of around $ 7 billion.
As Alcon prepared for the spin-off, earlier this week the company aAcquired manufacturer of liquid-based intraocular lenses PowerVision Inc.. for $ 285 million. Alcon said the acquisition of PowerVision demonstrates its commitment “to drive growth and innovation in intraocular lenses (AT-IOLS) with advanced technology to meet the needs of cataract surgery patients seeking glasses independence.”