By Ashutosh Pandey and Aman Shah
Jan 17 (Reuters) - Pfizer Inc's unit Zoetis Inc plans to
sell 86.1 million shares at between $22 and $25 each in an
initial public offering that could value the animal health
business at as much as $12.5 billion.
At the top-end of the expected range, the offering would
raise about $2.2 billion.
The Wall Street Journal reported last month that the Zoetis
IPO was likely by January or February, and that it could raise
about $4 billion.
Pfizer said in June last year that it planned to separate
its animal-health unit, which sells medicines, vaccines and
other products for livestock and pets, into a standalone
company.
The unit reported revenue of $3.16 billion, or about 7
percent of Pfizer's overall revenue, for the nine months ended
Sept. 30, 2012.
Zoetis had filed with regulators in August a placeholder
amount of up to $100 million, as the largest U.S. drugmaker
looked to spin off the unit and narrow its focus on its core
prescription drug business.
Zoetis will use a dual-class share structure, with Pfizer
offering all the Class A common shares in the IPO.
Pfizer will hold 413.9 million Class B Zoetis shares
following the offering, each of which would be convertible to
one Class A share at any time, according to an amended
regulatory filing.
Both classes of shares will have identical rights and voting
power on all matters submitted to stockholder vote, other than
the election of directors.
The Zoetis IPO is scheduled to price on Jan. 31 and shares
are expected to begin trading under the symbol "ZTS" on the New
York Stock Exchange on Feb. 1.
JP Morgan, BofA Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley are the
lead underwriters to the offering.
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