Pfizer Inc. said Monday that it has shed its entire stake in its former animal health business Zoetis Inc.
The giant drug company said its shareholders offered more than enough Pfizer shares as part of a voluntary stock exchange for Zoetis shares so that it now has no remaining stake in the animal health company.
For the past two years, Pfizer has been divesting assets outside its core business of producing medicines for people, selling both its capsule-making operation and its nutrition business for a total of nearly $14 billion.
CEO Ian Read has been trying to streamline the company to reduce costs and to focus research on disorders with limited treatments or in areas where New York-based Pfizer has expertise.
Pfizer said it accepted about 405.1 million tendered Pfizer shares in exchange for approximately 401 million shares of Zoetis. The exchange offer expired on Friday.
Zoetis, based in Madison, N.J., is the world’s biggest maker of medicines for pets and farm animals. It has annual sales of about $4.2 billion, from products including LymeVax, the first Lyme disease vaccine for dogs in the U.S.; Revolution, for protecting dogs and cats from fleas, heartworms and other parasites and Convenia, a one-shot treatment for dogs with common bacterial skin infections.
Pfizer had spun off Zoetis which held a successful initial public offering of its stock in February. The IPO raised $2.2 billion.
Pfizer said that it expects full-year adjusted earnings of $2.10 to $2.20 per share on revenue of $50.8 billion to $52.8 billion. Its prior forecast called for adjusted earnings of $2.14 to $2.24 per share on revenue of $55.3 billion to $57.3 billion.
Analysts polled by FactSet expect higher earnings of $2.21 per share on higher revenue of $55.88 billion.
But the company anticipates the full separation of Zoetis will add to its earnings in 2014.
Separately, Zoetis named board member Michael McCallister, the CEO of Humana Inc., as its non-executive chairman. McCallister joined the Zoetis board in January. He replaces Frank D’Amelio, who is Pfizer’s executive vice president of business operations and chief financial officer. D’Amelio will stay on as a director.
Zoetis also announced that several Pfizer executives have stepped down from its board. These include Geno Germano, Douglas Giordano, Charles Hill and Amy Schulman. Zoetis named Sanjay Khosla and Robert Scully as independent directors.
The company said it continues to evaluate additional board candidates.
Shares of Pfizer fell 76 cents, or 2.7 percent, to $27.70 in afternoon trading. Zoetis’ stock dropped $1.10, or 3.6 percent, to $29.50.
