novo-nordisk-science-5.html
Novo Annual Report 2015
6 / 72
the
novo
group novo a/s is the controlling shareholder in novo nordisk a/s and novozymes a/s. both companies achieved very good financial results in 2015
. novo nordisk increased its profit after tax by 32%; and in novozymes, the profit after tax increased by 12%. the value of shares in the two companies rose by 54% and 27%, respectively. novo a/s acquired 25.5% of the shares in nnit when the company was listed on nasdaq copenhagen on 6 march 2015. as novo nordisk a/s has retained a 25.5% ownership of nnit, novo a/s is ultimately the controlling shareholder of the company. nnit?s ipo was very successful, and the company?s performance has been satisfactory throughout 2015. large investments
in 2015, large investments added btg and inogen to its portfolio and divested its shares in aerocrine ab. in addition, we focused our activities on the further development of our existing portfolio. of the larger companies in the portfolio, chr. hansen a/s and the sonion group lived up to, or exceeded expectations, and xellia pharmaceuticals a/s made further progress towards fulfilling its market potential. venture investments as in previous years, novo worked to further consolidate its position as a major international investor within life science ventures. in 2015, novo invested in 17 new companies, made follow-on investments in 30 of our existing portfolio companies, and successfully exited 13 companies. our investments this year totalled dkk 1,733 million, and exit proceeds amounted to dkk 3,643 million. by the end of the year, the market value of our venture portfolio reached dkk 3.9 billion. furthermore, novo ventures expanded its us footprint with the opening of a regional office in boston, massachusetts. seed investments to enable early investments in the life science area, novo runs a seed programme. in 2015, we invested dkk 75 million in 10 early-stage life science companies. this year, epitherapeutics, the flagship in the seeds? portfolio, was acquired by the us biotech company, gilead, and novo seeds made its first venture into industrial biotech with the investment in biosyntia. novo assists the novo nordisk foundation in a pre-seed programme that aims to identify and support academic research with commercial potential. in 2015, seven projects received grants from the pre-seed programme. financial investments 2015 was another good year for novo?s financial investments. the main purpose of these investments is to spread novo?s financial risk and, at the same time, maintain a substantial liquid financial reserve. in 2015, we continued the consolidation of our global financial portfolio. we expanded the scope of the financial investments to include larger direct investments in selected danish companies, which resulted in two new investments: dkk 1,674 million in flsmidth & co. a/s and dkk 1,689 million in dades a/s. in 2015, our portfolio of financial investments yielded a return of 10.5% and reached an accumulated value of dkk 38 billion. novo?s organisation in 2015, two of our top managers stepped down. søren carlsen, managing partner of novo ventures and novo seeds, retired after 36 years in the novo group. thomas dyrberg took his place as managing partner of novo ventures. thorkil kastberg christensen, novo?s cfo since 2003, retired after more than 37 years in the novo group; he was succeeded by bjarne graven larsen, former ceo of fih erhvervsbank, who, however, terminated his tenure by the end of the year. finally, michael shalmi was appointed head of large investments. 16 new colleagues joined the novo team this year; 10 of these moved into newly created positions and four replaced colleagues who had taken employment elsewhere. 2015 in brief 300 200 100 0 development in assets (dkk billion) 2014 2015 shares in novo nordisk a/s shares in nnit a/s financial investments life science investments shares in novozymes a/s novo a/s 6 2015 in brief
investments-novo-2015-7.html
