Hikma Pharmaceuticals slumps as Boehringer Ingelheim sells stake

Hikma Pharmaceuticals shares slumped on Tuesday after major shareholder German pharmaceutical group Boehringer Ingelheim sold off its 16.5% stake in the company.

Boehringer sold 27.2m shares, or 11.5%, of its total 40m in a placing to institutional investors at 2,300p each, traders told Sharecast.

Hikma agreed to buy back the remaining 12.8m shares at the same price - a 7.3% discount to the closing share price on Monday.

Analysts at Stifel said Hikma’s decision to buy back some of the shares shows management’s confidence in the group’s ability to delivery growth without acquisitions. Stifel, which rates the stock at ‘buy’, lifted its price target to 2,700p from 2,200p and said the buyback was 5% accretive to earnings in 2021 and beyond.

At 1145 BST, the shares were down 6.6% at 2,316.00p.