Thursday, January 01, 2009

SNY (Sanofi-Aventis ) Analysis

SNY is a french based company with executives from France, Germany and Britain. It has significant operations around the world. It is a dominant drug company in Europe followed by the US and the rest of the world.

It has a dominant presence in the flue shot vaccine. The company also produces vaccines for Polio/Whooping Cough/Hib, adult booster vaccines, meningitis, pneumonia, other vaccines. The company is seeing double digit growth in vaccines year over year. Vaccines make up about 10% of the revenue overall. The company is also a leader in the treatment of thrombosis ( blood clotting ) and diabetes. The main drugs of the company are Lovenox, Plavix, Stilnox, Taxotere, Elaxatine, Lantus, Copaxone, Aprovel, Tritace, Allegra, Amaryl, Xatral, Actonel, Depakine, Nasacort. The revenue jump for pharmaceuticals is in low single digits. The unfavorable dollar to euro conversion rate isnt helping the company either.

Geographically, the company has major presence in Europe with 43% of its revenue coming from Europe. 35% of its revenue comes from the US. The remaining come from other parts of the world.

The French companies Total and L'Oreal hold significant stakes in the company at 12.64% and 8.65% respectively. The companies' voting rights are at 19.06% and 14.34% respectively. The American ADR holders may not have the same rights as the share holders in Euronext exchange. As a result, it is likely that dividends will continue to get paid at increasing rates in the future.

Although the top line has been stagnant in Euros for the past three years, the operating income available to shareholders has increased. The increase has come from the decrease in "Impairment of property, plant and equipment and intanglibles" charge in the past few years.

Although the book value of the company may seem quite high, majority of the book value is in the form of goodwill and intangibles. The company acquired Aventis recently.

The company is less exposed to expiring patents and has quite a few new drugs in the pipeline. Even without the new drugs, the company sports attractive dividend yield and price/cashflow ratios.

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