It’s a stock market rule of thumb that big acquisitions tend to destroy shareholder value. Spin-offs, on the other hand, have the reassuring habit of being more likely to create it. A case in point is Alcon, the world’s biggest maker of both disposable and reusable contact lenses and equipment such as lasers and microscopes used in eye operations. Since the Geneva-based group was spun out of Swiss pharmaceuticals giant Novartis five years ago, what were previously lacklustre sales have grown by nearly 30pc while underlying earnings before interest and tax (Ebit) is up more than 50pc. The value of the listed business has grown by just over a quarter in the time while a steady improvement in its cash flows has enabled Alcon to start paying a modest dividend. Analysts predict more of the same, or better, for the business in terms of sales, profits, margins, earnings per share and the dividend over coming years. It’s an impressive performance, particularly given two of its five years of independence were blighted by Covid, which brought eye operations to a near standstill. And it has garnered the attention of some of the world’s best-performing fund managers, eight of whom have become...