NEW YORK: Zoetis, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer's animal-health division, made a
dramatic debut on Wall Street Friday as the biggest initial public offering
since Facebook.
The shares, trading under the
symbol ZTS on the New York Stock Exchange, soared 19.27 per cent to close at
US$31.01 a share.
The shares had climbed 22 per
cent higher in morning trade.
Zoetis generated heavy interest
from investors after the group indicated Thursday that it had raised its
initial public offering price to US$26 after initially proposing a range of
US$22-$25.
The IPO, with 86.1 million shares
offered, raised US$2.24 billion. It leaves Pfizer holding an 83 per cent stake
in the unit.
An additional 12.9 million shares
of Zoetis could be sold in a supplementary offering. If the additional
allocation is sold, Pfizer's holding will be reduced to about 80 per cent.
"With the Zoetis initial
public offering, we are creating the largest stand-alone company fully devoted
to animal health medicines and vaccines," said Pfizer chief executive Ian
Read.
"For Pfizer, we are better
positioned to focus on our core business as an innovative biopharmaceutical
company, by unlocking value from the animal health business that will return
value to Pfizer shareholders," Read said in a statement.
Under the public offering, Zoetis
will trade independently of Pfizer on the New York Stock Exchange, but will
still be majority-owned by the pharmaceutical giant. Five of the nine members
of the Zoetis board currently work for Pfizer.
Zoetis reported revenues of
US$4.2 billion in 2011 and US$3.2 billion through the first nine months of
2012. Its profits during these periods were US$245 million and US$446 million,
respectively.
Pfizer had announced plans to
undertake the offering in June and filed its official papers with the
Securities and Exchange Commission in August.
Zoetis's market debut was the
biggest since Facebook's IPO on May 18, 2012, which raised US$16.02 billion,
the second-biggest US IPO in history.
- AFP/jc
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