Novartis has agreed to sell 53.3 million or approximately 33% of Roche shares in a bilateral transaction to Roche for a total consideration of $20.7 billion.
 
Vas Narasimhan, CEO of Novartis, said, “After more than 20 years as a shareholder of Roche, we concluded that now is the right time to monetize our investment. Today’s announcement is consistent with our strategic focus and we intend to deploy the proceeds from the transaction in line with our capital allocation priorities to maximize shareholder value and continue to reimagine medicine.”
 
Novartis has been a shareholder of Roche since May, 2001 and currently holds 53.3 million bearer shares of Roche’s common stock. Novartis acquired the stake between 2001 and 2003 for a total consideration of approximately $5 billion as a long-term financial investment, which has delivered significant, recurring earnings contribution and cumulative dividends in excess of $6 billion.
 
Over the holding period of the stake, this resulted in an annualized return of 10.2 % in USD (and 6.6% in CHF). Today, Novartis does not consider the financial investment in Roche as part of its core business and therefore not a strategic asset.
 
Novartis will report a gain from the sale in income from associated companies of approximately $14 billion.
 
The transaction is subject to the approval by the shareholders of Roche, at the Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) of Shareholders of Roche to be held on November 26, 2021.