Novartis tripled profits last year. The bottom line is that the pharmaceutical company made a net profit of $24 billion. Nevertheless, the dividend should only be increased slightly.
Novartis expects an acceleration for the current year.
In 2021, the pharmaceutical company Novartis made its highest profit in seven years. Compared to the previous year, the group result tripled to 24 billion dollars, which the company owes to a special effect. Thanks to the sale of its stake in Basel’s local rival Roche, it realized a profit of around 14 billion dollars.
According to the proposal to the general meeting, shareholders should only benefit from a 3 percent higher dividend of CHF 3.10 per share. In mid-December, Novartis announced it would launch a $15 billion share buyback program.
As expected, sales increased last year by 6 percent to $51.8 billion. In local currencies, the increase was limited to 4 percent, which means that Novartis also met its own forecast. Management’s target was to increase sales by a low to medium percentage on a constant currency basis.
For the current year, the company is forecasting growth in the mid-single-digit percentage range, also in local currencies, which indicates that the group management expects a slight acceleration. According to the company, the strategic review at the Sandoz division, which specializes in the manufacture of generics, is going according to plan. The result should be announced by the end of this year at the latest.
More to come.