Sanofi backs 50pc dividend payout long-term

NEW YORK: Sanofi SA's chief executive said that the drug-maker can maintain its dividend at a 50 percent payout ratio once it reaches that level and that large acquisitions are "completely off our radar screen."

"If you are going to make commitments on dividend policy you have to be prepared to make long term," Sanofi CEO Chris Viehbacher told Reuters in an interview on Monday.

The company, which is girding for generic competition for two of its top medicines, has said the dividend will go from its current 35 percent payout rate to the 50 percent range by no later than 2014.

Asked if Sanofi could maintain the dividend rate three or four years beyond 2014, Viehbacher said: "Oh yeah, we would move to 50 percent for a longer term."

The CEO also said he does not foresee significant generic competition to Sanofi's big-selling Lantus insulin for diabetics on the horizon, despite some concern by analysts that it could become vulnerable to generics by 2014.

Copyright Reuters, 2011