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Novo Annual Report 2015
11 / 72
continued success for
novo
a/s in
2015
2015
was a very good year for
novo
a/s with all areas of activity yielding satisfactory results.
novo
nordisk a/s and
novo
zymes a/s, in which
novo
is the controlling shareholder, experienced growth in both sales and earnings in
2015
.
novo
nordisk?s net profit increased by 32%, and in
novo
zymes net profit increased by 12%. the share price of the two companies increased by 54% and 27%, respectively. in march
2015
, a new independent member was admitted to the
novo
group, when nnit a/s was officially listed on nasdaq omx copenhagen. nnit offers a wide range of it services and solutions to its customers, which primarily come from the life science industry. the company was a wholly-owned subsidiary of
novo
nordisk prior to the ipo. the carve-out was a success, and
novo
now holds 25.5% of the share capital in the listed entity. we welcome nnit as a new member of the
novo
group. overall,
2015
rendered very satisfactory earnings.
novo
?s net result reached
dkk
15 billion, compared to
dkk
13 billion the previous year. the net result does not include price appreciations of our statute-bound shares in
novo
nordisk and
novo
zymes, and the result was achieved without participation in
novo
nordisk?s share buyback programme. most of
novo
?s venture investments are made in the us and the usd/
dkk
currency ratio increased 12% from end of 2014 to the end of
2015
. this appreciation contributed
dkk
1.1 billion to our
2015
life science investment result. 48% increase in total assets by the end of the year,
novo
?s assets totalled
dkk
378 billion, of which liquid and investment assets amounted to
dkk
70 billion. as a result of cash inflows, which primarily consist of dividends and exits from our investment portfolio and the returns from our financial portfolio, and cash outflows, primarily consisting of dividends to the
novo
nordisk foundation and investment in life science companies, our net cash flow in
2015
was
dkk
478 million, which increased our financial reserves. in
2015
, the value of
novo
?s shares in
novo
nordisk increased by 54% to
dkk
280 billion. we received dividends of
dkk
3,506 million ? an increase of 11% compared to 2014. as in 2014, we decided not to participate in the share buyback programme in
novo
nordisk in
2015
. as a consequence, our share of the capital in
novo
nordisk increased by 0.5%-points. at the end of the year, we held 537,436,000 a shares and 163,814,000 b shares, equivalent to 27% of the share capital and 74.5% of the votes in
novo
nordisk. the value of
novo
?s shares in
novo
zymes increased by 25% in
2015
. by the end of the year, the value of our holding in
novo
zymes amounted to
dkk
26 billion. we received dividends of
dkk
245 million ? an increase of 20% compared to the previous year. as part of
novo
zymes? share buyback programme, we sold 1,708,500 b shares in
novo
zymes yielding
dkk
537 million. as of 31 december
2015
, we held 53,743,600 a shares and 26,071,400 b shares, equivalent to 25.5% of the share capital and 70.7% of the votes in
novo
zymes. in
2015
,
novo
paid
dkk
4,715 million in dividends to the
novo
nordisk foundation, which, in accordance with its statutes, provides grants for scientific, humanitarian and social purposes. since 2007, the foundation has issued more than
dkk
7 billion in grants, primarily to research within biomedicine and biotechnology in denmark and the rest of the scandinavian countries. these grants aim to strengthen the quality of research within these fields and advance future research by supporting talented scientists in their development. we focus our investments on four main areas ? three of which fall within life science and biotech and one within finance. our life science/biotech investment activities are subdivided into three categories: large investments, venture investments and seed investments ? each represented by their own business unit.
dkk
million
2015
2014 returns from the
novo
group* 107,795 49,016 returns from life science investments 8,592 7,336 returns from financial investments 2,895 3,204 * returns from the
novo
group include unrealised appreciation of a and b shares based on the market value per b share.
dkk
million
2015
2014 shares in
novo
group companies* 308,019 203,715 life science investments 31,878 26,254 financial investments 37,866 24,567 total 377,763 254,536 * shares in
novo
group companies include unrealised appreciation of a and b shares based on the market value per b share. annual review
2015
11 management report
investments-novo-2015-12.html
