Pfizer Inc.'s Zoetis Hauls in $2.24 Billion in IPO

Zoetis Inc., the animal-health company owned by Pfizer (PFE) Inc., raised $2.24 billion in its initial public offering, pricing the shares above the marketed price range. Zoetis sold 86.1 million shares at $26 each, according to a statement yesterday, after offering them for $22 to $25. Pfizer offered about 17 percent of Zoetis in the IPO, the biggest in the U.S. since Facebook Inc.’s last year. The price values Zoetis at $13 billion, making it the largest public company of its kind and one of the few focused solely on medicines for animals. Zoetis is benefiting as people consume more protein, a trend likely to increase as wealth grows in emerging countries such as Brazil, China and India, said Marshall Gordon, of New York-based money manager ClearBridge Investments LLC. As meat consumption grows, so will spending on animal medicine for cows, pigs and poultry, he said. “This is a play on global income growth -- as people rise in income, they eat more protein, and they have more companion animals,” Gordon said. The shares will start trading today, listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ZTS. The IPO was led by JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and Morgan Stanley. Zoetis, based in Madison, New Jersey, traces its roots back to 1952 as a Pfizer unit and has made at least 10 acquisitions to become the largest animal-health business, with $4.3 billion sales in 2012 -- about 20 percent of the $22 billion market.