AbbVie Accelerates Share Buybacks After Pharmacyclics Deal

AbbVie Inc. on Wednesday said it would repurchase $5 billion in shares from Morgan Stanley, following the completion of its Pharmacyclics Inc. acquisition.

In March, the Chicago pharmaceutical company unveiled plans to buy blood cancer-focused Pharmacyclics for about $21 billion--a deal it completed Tuesday. AbbVie had said it would execute an accelerated share-repurchase program to buy back at least half of the equity issued in the transaction promptly after the closing. The company in March lifted its share-repurchase authorization to $10 billion from $5 billion.

Morgan Stanley is expected to make an initial delivery of 68 million shares Wednesday.

Earlier this month, AbbVie sold $16.7 billion in new bonds to help finance the Pharmacyclics deal, marking one of the largest corporate bond deals of the year.