Novartis AG raised its profit outlook and announced plans to buy back as much as $15 billion in shares as it prepares to spin off its Sandoz generics unit.
Operating profit excluding some items will likely grow by low double digits this year, the Swiss drugmaker said in a statement, up from a prior estimate of high single digits.
Novartis has been working on severing itself from Sandoz for almost a year, and the spinoff will take place in the fourth quarter if shareholders endorse it at an extraordinary general meeting on Sept. 15, the company said Tuesday.
Novartis is in flux as Chief Executive Officer Vas Narasimhan sheds the company’s less profitable projects and divisions to focus on new prescription medicines. The CEO has wrestled with research setbacks even as he reorganized the drugmaker and slashed jobs.
After seeing Novartis deliver strong results from breast cancer drug Kisqali in a clinical trial, investors are now turning their focus to the company’s operating performance, Barclays Plc analyst Emily Field wrote in a note before the results.
Meanwhile, potential generic competitors are on the horizon for Novartis’s biggest drug, heart medicine Entresto. A US judge ruled an Entresto patent invalid this month, though analysts said it may not face a generic competitor until 2026.
