Buying back L'Oreal's 9 percent stake in Sanofi could be "very accretive" for the French drugmaker, although the idea remains speculative as the $12 billion holding has yet to be put up for sale, Sanofi's CEO said.Investor attention has focused increasingly on a potential realignment of shareholdings that may see Sanofi making a debt-funded repurchase of L'Oreal's stake in a move analysts believe should boost the pharmaceutical group's earnings.Such a deal could provide Sanofi with a useful lift as it seeks to return to growth after a difficult 2013 that featured problems in Brazil and several product setbacks."If you get the chance you are certainly going to look seriously at it - but it is an 'if, if, if' situation," Sanofi Chief Executive Chris Viehbacher told Reuters on Friday on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Sanofi SA, formerly Sanofi-Aventis, is a global and diversified healthcare company based in France. Shares of SNY fell by 1.44% or $-0.74/share to $50.79. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $44.50 and as high as $55.94. On average, 1388580 shares of SNY exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 2419272.
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