Activist hedge fund Parvus builds stake in Novo Nordisk, FT reports

Parvus Asset Management Increases Stake in Novo Nordisk Amid CEO Change

(Reuters) -Activist hedge fund Parvus Asset Management is building a stake in Novo Nordisk amid investor concerns that the Danish drugmaker has lost its first-mover advantage in the lucrative weight-loss drug market, the Financial Times reported on Monday.

The London-based fund, which has earlier targeted budget airline Ryanair and Italian bank UniCredit, wants to influence the appointment of Novo Nordisk's new CEO, the report said, citing people with knowledge of the details.

Novo told Reuters in an email that it does not "have anything to add." Parvus did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In May, the company announced its CEO Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen would step down after shares plunged from a record-high in June last year as competition, particularly from U.S. rival Eli Lilly, makes inroads into Novo's market share, while its pipeline of new drugs has failed to impress investors.

Novo also expects its Wegovy weight-loss drug sales in the United States to start recovering once a ban on compound copycats is enforced this month, Jorgensen said in May after the company cut its 2025 forecasts.

The FT report said that Parvus did not disclose the size of its stake in Novo Nordisk. In Danish securities law, if the stake surpasses the 5% threshold, shareholders are required to disclose their holdings and changes in holdings to the issuer and the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA).

Parvus, which previously built a stake in UniCredit, approved its CEO Andrea Orcel's pay package in 2023. The fund dissolved its stake in Ryanair in April, but also holds a 4.3% stake in Flutter Entertainment, according to data compiled by LSEG.

(Reporting by Gnaneshwar Rajan and Puyaan Singh in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Christy Santhosh; Editing by Alan Barona)