Roche to exit flavors and fragrances

Abstract

Another large multinational pharmaceutical company is shedding its nondrug operations in order to focus on pharmaceuticals. Swiss firm Roche will spin off its Givaudan Roure flavors and fragrances division into a new company, to be called Givaudan. Securities analysts expect the company will be valued at about $4 billion when shares in Givaudan begin trading. The move comes less than a week after Switzerland's Novartis and Anglo- Swedish firm AstraZeneca announced they were combining their agrochemicals businesses into a new entity called Syngenta (C&EN, Dec. 6, page 10). Roche points out that the spin-off will not involve any major restructuring because the division has always been managed as an operationally and legally separate unit The division's current chief executive, Jtirg Witmer, 51, will hold the same post in the new company. Its nonexecutive chairman will be Henri B. Meier, 63, Roche's chief financial officer, who will continue in that post as well. And the new ...