BASEL: Novartis has confirmed that certain important conditions precedent for the 100% spin-off of the Alcon eye care business have been met, including receipt of certain necessary authorizations and rulings.[the_ad id=”31605″]Completion of the transaction, by way of a distribution of a dividend in kind to Novartis shareholders and ADR (American Depositary Receipt) holders, is expected to be on April 9, 2019. In the distribution, each Novartis shareholder will receive 1 Alcon share for every 5 Novartis shares/ADRs they hold on April 8, 2019, close of business, a notice issued to London Stock Exchange said.
Approval has been given, subject to customary conditions, by the SIX Exchange Regulation for the listing of the shares of Alcon Inc. on the Swiss Exchange (SIX) pursuant to the International Reporting Standard. Authorization has also been received for the listing of shares in Alcon Inc. on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
Shares in Alcon Inc. are expected to be listed and traded from April 9, 2019 on the SIX and the NYSE under the ticker symbol “ALC”. Alcon will also be included in both the Swiss Market Index (SMI®) and Swiss Performance Index (SPI®) from the first day of trading, as recently announced by the SIX.
Alcon has secured debt financing of USD 3.5 billion through a group of banks. The Alcon credit rating will be investment grade following the spin-off. Moody’s Investor Service and S&P Global Ratings have rated Alcon at Baa2 and BBB, respectively, with a stable outlook. Bank of America Merrill Lynch and UBS AG are advising Novartis on the transaction.
Shares of Novartis will continue to trade on the SIX under the symbol “NOVN”. Novartis ADRs will continue to trade “regular-way” on NYSE under the symbol “NVS”.
According to the notification, as opposed to a typical US domestic spin-off, and in order to align trading between the Swiss and US markets, there will be no “ex-distribution” trading of Novartis ADRs, nor “when-issued” trading of Alcon shares, prior to the spin-off. Shareholders will not have the ability to trade Novartis ADRs ex-dividend on the NYSE during the period between the day before the ADR record date and the spin-off completion date and will not have the ability to trade Alcon on a “when-issued basis” on either the SIX or the NYSE prior to the spin-off.
Beginning on April 9, 2019, shareholders will be able to trade Alcon shares in the regular-way market on both the SIX and NYSE under the symbol “ALC”.