By Melodie Warner
Zoetis Inc. (ZTS), the former animal-health unit of Pfizer Inc.
(PFE), became a fully independent company Monday after the
pharmaceutical giant said its offer to swap Zoetis stock for Pfizer
shares was oversubscribed, leaving it with no remaining stake in
the former unit.
Zoetis, which makes drugs and vaccines given to livestock,
completed its roughly $2.2 billion initial public offering in
February. Pfizer retained about 401 million Class B Zoetis shares,
or about 80.2% of the stock outstanding, and said last month it
would split off its remaining interest in its former unit through a
voluntary exchange offer with its shareholders.
Pfizer said 1.68 billion Pfizer shares were tendered as of
midnight EDT on Friday. The company had accepted about 405.1
million of the tendered shares in exchange for roughly 401 million
Zoetis shares.
Pfizer converted all of its Zoetis Class B stock into Zoetis
Class A shares and no longer holds any ownership interest in
Zoetis.
Pfizer also lowered its full-year adjusted earnings guidance by
four cents to a range of $2.10 to $2.20 a share to reflect the
removal of projected contributions from Zoetis, and cut its revenue
forecast by $4.5 billion to between $50.8 billion and $52.8
billion.
Shares were recently trading 16 cents lower at $28.30.
Write to Melodie Warner at melodie.warner@dowjones.com
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