Novartis CEO says COVID-19 makes valuing takeover targets tougher

  • 📰 Reuters
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 20 sec. here
  • 2 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 11%
  • Publisher: 97%

Loans Loans Headlines News

Loans Loans Latest News,Loans Loans Headlines

Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG has financial firepower for acquisitions even with net debt of $26 billion, though the COVID-19 pandemic has made it more difficult to value takeover candidates, Chief Executive Vas Narasimhan said in an interview.

FILE PHOTO: CEO Vas Narasimhan of Swiss drugmaker Novartis addresses the company's annual news conference in Basel, Switzerland, Jan. 30, 2019. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

Still, “acquisitions have slowed recently from a structural perspective” during the pandemic, he said. Moreover, he said Novartis had hoped to be faster in developing new drugs against COVID-19 and could have potentially profited from more cooperation with smaller biotech companies. “We concentrated more on our own in-house activities - and learned a lesson from it,” he said.

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.

Valuing takeover targets would be even more difficult in Blues states.

The bad time makes everyone terrible.

Aw, we're sorry for your troubles, in the pandemic!

Cry me a river.

We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 2. in LOANS

Loans Loans Latest News, Loans Loans Headlines