Homburger advises Roche Holding AG on the repurchase of the Novartis stake in Roche Holding AG and the financing of the transaction

On November 4, 2021, Roche Holding AG (Roche), the world’s largest biotech company, with a market capitalisation of around CHF 320 bn, announced that it agreed with Novartis to repurchase 53.3 m Roche shares from Novartis Holding AG for an aggregate consideration of approx. CHF 19 bn. The transaction is conditional upon the approval of a capital reduction by cancellation of the repurchased shares and the approval of interim financial statements prepared for the purpose of the transaction by an extraordinary general meeting of Roche.

Homburger acted as legal counsel to Roche. The Homburger team was led by partners Heinz Schärer and David Oser and included partner Daniel Häusermann, counsel Micha Fankhauser, associates Sarah Chevalley and Jasmin Künzle (all Corporate / M&A), partners Reto Heuberger and Dieter Grünblatt and associates Laetitia Fracheboud and Kevin Müller (all Tax), partner Jürg Frick, counsels Lee Saladino and Eduard De Zordi and associate Stefan Bindschedler (all Finance), partner Balz Gross, counsel Bénédict Thomann and associates Luca Angstmann and Sebastian Wyler (all Dispute Resolution).