Boston Scientific, AbbVie, NOG Lead Busy Corporate Day

Boston Scientific expanded its board from 10 to 12 members, appointing Starbucks (SBUX) chief financial officer Cathy Smith and Takeda Pharmaceutical chief executive Christophe Weber as directors effective February 23, 2026. Both will serve on key board committees, with Smith joining the audit and nominating and governance committees, and Weber joining the executive compensation and human resources, and risk, science and technology committees.

Alongside the board changes, Boston Scientific increased its stock repurchase authorization by $4 billion, bringing total capacity under its program to $5 billion. The company said the larger authorization reflects confidence in its financial strength and an ongoing commitment to returning capital to shareholders through buybacks.

AbbVie announced plans to invest $380 million in two new active pharmaceutical ingredient facilities in North Chicago, Illinois. The plants are expected to be operational by 2029 and to create 300 new jobs. They will focus on producing ingredients for neuroscience and obesity treatments, expanding AbbVie’s manufacturing capacity in these therapeutic areas.

The investment comes as AbbVie continues to balance strategic growth initiatives with financial challenges including declining margins, a high price-to-earnings ratio and significant leverage. The company’s strong institutional ownership is cited alongside these pressures as it commits capital to long-term production projects.

Northern Oil and Gas closed its joint acquisition of non-operated properties in the Ohio Utica Shale with Infinity Natural Resources. NOG acquired a 40% stake in the assets for $464.5 million in cash, while Infinity completed a larger $1.2 billion purchase of upstream and midstream assets in the play from Antero Resources and Antero Midstream.

In connection with the Ohio transaction, NOG expanded its revolving credit facility, lifting its borrowing base to approximately $2.0 billion and its elected commitment to $1.8 billion, adding about $200 million in liquidity. Infinity’s deal increases its Utica interest to 60%, adding 71,000 net horizontal acres and more than 110 drilling locations, which the company said materially strengthens its Utica position and financial profile.

Keurig Dr Pepper updated its financing plan for the pending acquisition of JDE Peet’s and the subsequent separation of its beverage and coffee portfolios into two independent companies. The company now expects to fund the transaction with roughly $9 billion of long-term debt, $8.5 billion of equity capital and the assumption of about $5 billion of existing JDE Peet’s bonds, targeting a projected combined net leverage of 4.5 times by June 30, 2026.

On the equity side, Keurig Dr Pepper upsized its previously announced Series A convertible preferred stock issuance to $4.5 billion from $3 billion. The preferred, co-led by Apollo and KKR with additional investors including T. Rowe Price Investment Management, carries a 4.75% dividend and an initial conversion price of $37.25 per share. As part of the revised plan, the company no longer intends to pursue a partial IPO of its beverage business.

Separately, the company finalized a $4.0 billion pod manufacturing joint venture with vehicles managed by Apollo, KKR and Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Keurig Dr Pepper will contribute U.S. and Canadian manufacturing assets and retain a 51% stake, while the investor group will acquire a 49% interest. Management said the mix of the JV, preferred equity and planned debt issuance is designed to support the JDE Peet’s acquisition while preserving balance sheet strength at both the future beverage and coffee entities.