It is the biggest initial public offering since Facebook‘s, but so far the debut of Zoetis is following a much different script than the giant social network did last year.
On a morning when the overall stock market was up â€" with the Dow Jones industrial average briefly cracking 14,000 for the first time since 2007 â€" shares of Zoetis were up nearly 18 percent, at $30.60 in trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock opened at $31.50.
Zoetis (pronounced “zoh-EH-tisâ€) is Pfizer‘s aimal health business that has been spun off. It raised $2.2 billion on Thursday, pricing its offering at $26 a share. The drug giant continues to hold a 82.8 percent economic interest in Zoetis. The offering price puts the value of the Madison, N.J.-based company at $13 billion.
The strong debut will likely elevate expectations that other big pharmaceutical companies, like Merck or Sanofi-Aventis, might spin off or sell their own animal health divisions.
The Zoetis offering was led by JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley.
