DuPont to Issue Life Sciences ‘Tracking Stock’

DuPont Co., the nation’s largest chemicals company, said it plans to offer a new class of stock in 2000 to allow people to invest directly in the company’s small but rapidly growing life sciences division. Life sciences represent the combination of pharmaceutical, biotechnology and agricultural businesses. Each DuPont shareholder will receive one share of the “tracking stock” for each DuPont share. Other details, which must get shareholder approval, have yet to be worked out. The investment option is not a spinoff. Wilmington, Del.-based DuPont, formed in 1802, will remain one company with one board and one balance sheet. But DuPont will develop separate financial statements for the life sciences division. The company also said it will seek to expand in the drug industry later this year by forming alliances with pharmaceutical firms. Wall Street liked the new DuPont stock option, sending the company’s shares up $3.81 to close at $57.38 on the New York Stock Exchange. DuPont’s life sciences business totaled $4.3 billion in sales last year, less than 20% of the company’s total sales.