Two more pet-related spinoffs on tap

Article Excerpt

ELI LILLY & CO. $105 (New York symbol LLY; Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 1.1 billion; Market cap: $115.5 billion; Dividend yield: 2.1%; Takeover Target Rating: Low; www.lilly.com) develops, makes and markets drugs and animal-health products. Lilly hopes to match the success Pfizer realized with its Zoetis spinoff (see pages 81 and 82) by setting up its Elanco Animal Health business as a separate company. Using an initial public offering (IPO), Lilly will sell 20% of Elanco’s shares to the public. It expects to complete the sale before 2019. The company will later spin off the remaining 80% of shares to Lilly investors. Elanco makes medications for both livestock and companion animals (pets). The firm has grown rapidly through more than 10 acquisitions since 2007. Those purchases include its $5.4 billion takeover of Novartis’s animal-health unit in 2015. In the second quarter of 2018, Lilly’s overall revenue rose 9.1%, to $6.4 billion from $5.8 billion a year earlier. That’s mainly due to strong demand for its…