BB Biotech, one of the world’s largest biotech investor, will adjust the portfolio due the difficult market situation. Shareholders will receive a lower dividend than last year.
BB Biotech was badly hit by last year’s drop in stock prices. The biotech investor had a loss of 471 million Swiss francs ($474 million) for the full year, after a profit of 688 million a year earlier, the company said in a statement on Friday.
As an investment company, the results reflect the performance of the stocks BB Biotech holds in its investment portfolio, the company said. The detailed report will be published on February 15, 2019.
Lower Dividend Payment
The board proposes to pay a dividend of 3.05 francs per share, corresponding to a 5 percent return on the volume-weighted average closing price of BB Biotech shares in December. A year ago, BB Biotech paid a dividend of 3.30 francs.
During the course of the year BB Biotech realized significant gains on the disposal of three portfolio positions but those gains were unable to completely offset the negative returns from existing major portfolio shareholdings and the generally weak stock market performance, the company said.
Portfolio Adjustment
In the fourth quarter, the share price declined by 19 percent in Swiss francs and 17 percent in euro terms, while the portfolio dropped 18 percent in franc terms and 17 percent in euro terms. For the company, this corresponded to a fourth-quarter loss of 643 million francs and a full-year loss of 471 million francs.
«Management will continue the process of realigning the portfolio to capture future growth trends in the biotech sector,» the company said. «In spite of the unfavorable conditions on financial markets, the biotech sector is making tremendous strides and improving its fundamentals.»
