Sanofi to Sell Stake in Regeneron, Existing Deal Unchanged

Sanofi SNY announced its intent to sell most of its equity investment in its collaboration partner, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals REGN, worth almost $13 billion as of Regeneron’s closing price on Friday.

Sanofi currently holds approximately 23.2 million shares of Regeneron common stock, which represents approximately 20.6% ownership.

Sanofi plans to sell a portion of its stake in Regeneron through a registered public offering. Regeneron will repurchase its common stock worth $5 billion from Sanofi following the successful completion of the public offer. Following the completion of public offering and share repurchase, Sanofi will continue to hold approximately 400,000 shares of Regeneron.

Please note that there is a lock-in period related to the collaboration agreement with Regeneron that is set to expire at the end of 2020. Sanofi will be able to raise funds following the expiration of the lock-in period.

The companies together have developed five important medicines including Kevzara (sarilumab) and Praluent (alirocumab).

We note that Sanofi had hinted at monetizing its stake in Regeneron in December 2019 while announcing a new strategic framework.

Shares of Sanofi have declined 5.8% so far this year compared with the industry’s decrease of 2.6%.

 

Under the new framework, the company had back then announced that it is planning to discontinue all its research activities in diabetes and cardiovascular area and focus on high-growth franchises included under its Specialty Care global business units.

The company may invest the proceeds from the stake sale to acquire or add oncology candidates to its pipeline, which is a lucrative avenue.

Sanofi and Regeneron had announced their intention to restructure their antibody collaboration into a royalty-based agreement for Kevzara and Praluent last year. However, the terms of the agreement related to blockbuster drug, Dupixent (also included in the antibody collaboration) will remain unchanged.

Meanwhile, the companies are evaluating Kevzara as a treatment for severe COVID-19 patients.

Sanofi Price

 

Sanofi Price

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Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider

Sanofi currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

A couple of better-ranked large-cap pharma stocks are Eli Lilly and Company LLY and Bristol-Myers Squibb Company BMY. While Lilly sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Bristol-Myers carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Lilly’s earnings estimates increased from $6.77 to $6.81 for 2020 and from $7.93 to $8.02 for 2021 over the past 60 days. The company delivered a positive earnings surprise in the trailing four quarters, the average beat being 8.24%. Share price of the company has increased 16.6% so far this year.

Bristol-Myers’ earnings estimates increased from $6.10 to $6.14 for 2020 and from $7.32 to $7.35 for 2021 over the past 30 days. The company delivered a positive earnings surprise in three of the trailing four quarters, the average beat being 7.94%. Share price of the company has increased 19.5% so far this year.

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