Total assets under management for Novo Holdings, Novo Nordisk’s controlling shareholder, fell by more than one-third last year. The report caps off a tumultuous year for the Novo group of companies.
As Novo Nordisk’s market value fell over 2025, so did that of its parent company Novo Holdings.
Total assets under management for the holdings and investment company fell 34%, from €142 billion ($163.8 billion) in 2024 to €93 billion ($107.3 billion) for 2025, according to an annual report issued Thursday. Novo Holdings attributed this decline to the “significant drop in the market value of Novo Nordisk,” of which Novo Holdings owns a controlling stake.
Indeed, Novo Nordisk’s market cap last month fell to a low the pharma hadn’t seen since before the June 2021 approval of Wegovy, the GLP-1 drug marketed for obesity.
Still, Novo Holdings, the investment arm of the Novo Nordisk Foundation, generated €2.8 billion ($3.2 billion) in total income and returns in 2025, which included dividends from its companies and returns from assets in the portfolio. The company’s five- and 10-year returns are 8% and 8.9%, respectively, which is above benchmark, according to the release. In addition to its falling valuation, however, Novo Nordisk impacted the total returns in 2025 by suspending a share buyback program in the year.
The report caps off a tumultuous year for the Novo group of companies. The foundation stepped in to right the ship at Novo Nordisk in May after the drugmaker ceded its lead in the obesity market to Eli Lilly. The foundation overhauled Novo Nordisk’s board and removed CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen.
Maziar Mike Doustdar succeeded him and has shifted to a much more aggressive style of leadership. The drugmaker made a dramatic unsolicited bid for obesity biotech Metsera in October, attempting to steal the prize out from under Pfizer.
When Novo Nordisk reported earnings in early February, Doustdar acknowledged ongoing challenges but said the launch of oral Wegovy was going extremely well, with 100,000 Americans already taking the pill just weeks into the launch. Lilly is close behind, however, with orforglipron expected to receive FDA approval soon and launch in the second quarter.
Novo Nordisk predicted that sales would decline by 5% in 2026, mainly due to lower drug prices in the U.S.
