Novartis offers to buy rest of Alcon for $39.3b

GENEVA: Novartis AG offered to buy the rest of Alcon Inc, the world's largest eye-care company, from Nestle SA and shareholders for a total of $39.3 billion, as Chief Executive Officer Daniel Vasella expands into products for eye surgery.

Nestle will sell a 52 percent stake to the Basel, Switzerland-based drugmaker for $180 a share, Novartis said yesterday in a Hugin statement. Novartis offered to pay 2.8 of its own shares for each remaining Alcon share held by the public. Novartis is exercising a call option the Swiss companies agreed to in April 2008. Nestle yesterday announced an additional share buyback worth 10 billion Swiss francs ($9.65 billion).

By buying all of Alcon, the maker of Opti-Free contact lens cleaners, Novartis expands a portfolio of eye-care businesses including Ciba Vision and the Lucentis blindness drug, said Dieter Buchholz of Falcon Private Bank. Alcon had an operating profit margin of 35 percent in 2008 compared with Novartis's 22 percent.