Novartis’s $29.8 Billion Spin-Off of Alcon

On April 9, 2019, Novartis completed the spin-off of the Alcon eye care devices business into a separately-traded standalone company through a dividend-in-kind distribution to holders of Novartis shares and American Depositary Receipts (“ADRs”), with each holder receiving 1 Alcon share for every 5 Novartis shares or ADRs held on April 8, 2019. Cravath represented Novartis in connection with this transaction, which is valued at approximately $29.8 billion based on first day trading of Alcon Inc.

The Cravath team included senior attorney Mark Mushkin and associates Yannick Adler, Adam G. DiSimine and Shu-en Wee on corporate matters; partners Stephen L. Gordon and J. Leonard Teti II and associates Arvind Ravichandran and Andrew L. Mandelbaum on tax matters; partners Mark I. Greene and Aaron M. Gruber on M&A matters; and partner Eric W. Hilfers and associates Matthew J. Bobby and Sally Ye on executive compensation and benefits matters. Cedrick M. Dalluge also worked on corporate matters.