Oncolytics Biotech Inc T.ONC

Novartis Sells Shares Back to Roche for $20.7 Billion

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In a statement this morning, Roche said the acquisition of the Novartis stake “leads to the disentanglement of the two competitors” and allows Roche to regain full strategic flexibility.

Novartis initially acquired its stake in Roche over a two-year period between 2001 and 2003 for $5 billion. 

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The deal extricates Roche from ownership ties to a major competitor with strategic vetoing power. Roche said it will use debt to finance what it called a "disentanglement of two competitors" and plans to reduce its capital by cancelling the repurchased shares to regain full strategic flexibility. The transaction sent Roche shares to a record high. By mid-morning, they were up 2.4

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Novartis' sale of Roche means the group will soon have $20.7bn to make strategic acquisitions of other biopharmaceuticals. And there could be more to come, if Novartis sells Sandoz – something that Novartis signalled after it started a recent strategic review of the generic business. What we know is that Novartis has stated that it is looking at bolt-ons deals but hasn't

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Should read: "The addition of ONCY's pelareorep with checkpoint inhibitors and/or CDK4,6 or PARP inhibitors with radiation is another possibility for application."

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Novartis will potentially receive another $US21.6 Billion for the sale of its generic unit Sandoz in addition to the US$20.7 Billion received from Roche for the repurchase of Roche's shares.  In the recent news, Swedish-based investment group EQT and the Struengmann family of Germany are considering a joint move to purchase Novartis' generics outfit for $21.6 billion. "The