Roche to Spin Off Fragrance, Flavors Unit

Roche Holding, Europe’s fourth-biggest drug maker, plans to spin off its Givaudan fragrance and flavor unit into a new company worth as much as $4 billion to focus on more profitable health-care products. Investors will get one share in the company, distributed as a special dividend, for each bearer or nonvoting share they hold in Roche. Givaudan, which makes perfumes such as Calvin Klein’s Obsession and Yves Saint Laurent’s Opium, should be listed on the Swiss exchange at the end of May.