BB BIOTECH AG

BB Biotech AG is a publicly traded investment company based out of Kusnacht, Swizterland. The company was originally launched as an equity fund by Bellevue Asset Management and was officially formed in 1993. As a publicly traded company, the firm’s registered shares are traded on the SIX Swiss Exchange, German Frankfurt stock exchange, and Italian Milan Stock Exchange. BB Biotech AG was originally listed in Switzerland just a month after its inception and would be listed in Germany in 1997 and Italy in 2000. The company is mainly held by institutional and private investors of which 94.6% are free floating shares and the remaining 5.4% are treasury shares that are held on a second trading line. BB Biotech AG focuses on investing in “fast growing companies developing and marketing innovative biotech drugs,” having an investment mandate that states that at least 90% of its shareholdings must be in listed companies. The company has a holistic research approach, seeking to understand companies not only through financial aspects but also understanding the “respective competitive environment, the innovation pipeline, patent portfolios and the market perception of each company’s products and services,” and others. BB Biotech AG utilizes a fundamental methodology to make its investments, allocating its assets in the public equity markets on a global scale. The company, expectedly, in vests most heavily in the health care sector, which alone makes up almost all of its total holdings. BB Biotech AG has top holdings in Celgene Corp., Incyte Corporation, Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc., Gilead Sciences Inc., and others with its top 10 holdings together making up over two thirds of its total holdings. The company has a turnover rate of approximately 20.7%. BB Biotech AG does not conduct its asset management in house but rather has outsourced those operations to a specialized third company, namely Bellevue Asset Management Group, its original parent company.