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Novo Holdings is Novo Nordisk's biggest shareholder

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Investment returns hit record $8.7 billion last year

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Novo Nordisk dividends fuel investment

(Adds detail on returns and employees, paragraphs 4 and 6)

By Maggie Fick and Stine Jacobsen

LONDON/COPENHAGEN, April 2 (Reuters) - Novo Holdings,

the controlling shareholder of obesity drugmaker Novo Nordisk

, nearly doubled annual income and investment returns

to a record 8 billion euros ($8.66 billion) in 2024, it said on

Wednesday.

Fuelled by dividends from the company behind blockbuster

weight-loss drug Wegovy and diabetes treatment Ozempic, Novo

Holdings is a life sciences investment powerhouse that manages

assets for the Novo Nordisk Foundation, one of the world's

biggest philanthropic bodies.

"2024 was a very strong year for Novo Holdings, with our

investment portfolio delivering its best ever performance," CEO

Kasim Kutay said in a statement.

The portfolio generated returns of 18% for the year, up from

9.4% in 2023, Novo Holdings said.

Kutay said the company would focus this year on expanding

its presence in Asia, with the opening of an office in Mumbai

after significant investments already made in India last year.

It now has 205 employees globally, its 2024 annual report

said, up from 178 by the end of 2023.

The portfolio comprises investments in life sciences and a

broad range of assets - equities, bonds, real estate,

infrastructure and private equity. It has controlling stakes in

Novo Nordisk, in which it has 77% of voting shares, and

Novonesis.

In 2024 Novo Holdings invested 4.6 billion euros in life

sciences targeting cancer, obesity and neurodegenerative

disorders, adding 43 new companies while making 27 exits.

Its biggest acquisition by far last year was of pharma

manufacturing and services company Catalent for $16.5 billion,

the largest healthcare buyout in 2024. It subsequently sold

three Catalent manufacturing plants to Novo Nordisk for $11

billion to boost Wegovy production.

However, total assets under management dropped slightly to

142 billion euros in 2024, from 149 billion in 2023, driven by a

decline in Novo Nordisk's market value.

Novo Nordisk's market value has roughly halved since July

2024, partly because of investor concern that it has lost its

first-mover advantage in the fiercely competitive obesity drug

market to U.S. rival Eli Lilly ( LLY ).

($1 = 0.9240 euros)