Stilo Share News (STL)

* Expected to appoint Helge Lund as new chairman

* Former Statoil chief has extensive M&A experience

* Novo Nordisk seeking deals to broaden product line-up

* Faces increasing price pressure in diabetes market

By Stine Jacobsen

COPENHAGEN, March 22 (Reuters) - Leading diabetes drugmakerNovo Nordisk is expected to pick former oil bossHelge Lund as its new chairman as the company contends withincreasing price pressure and seeks new acquisitions to broadenits blood products line-up.

The man dubbed by some as Norway's Mr Oil because of hisextensive career in the oil and gas industry may be more of anexpert in hydrocarbons than insulin, but his merger andacquisitions experience is the big draw for the Danishpharmaceuticals company.

Novo is on the hunt for promising assets to boost itsstruggling blood products business after it lost out to Frenchrival Sanofi in the chase for Belgian biotech companyAblynx in late January.

Novo said it dropped its pursuit of Ablynx, which isdeveloping an experimental drug for a rare blood disorder,because it could not justify the high price required to beatSanofi's offer.

Lund is expected to be appointed at Novo's annual generalmeeting on Thursday.

"We are about to see Novo take on a role that we have notseen before and therefore it is important to have a chairmanwith experience of mergers and acquisitions," said Sydbankanalyst Soren Lontoft Hansen.

Lund oversaw Kvaerner's merger with AkerMaritime. He later became head of Statoil, where he wasin charge during the oil major's $30 billion acquisition ofNorsk Hydro's petroleum business.

In his next role as chief executive of BG Group, Lund wentfrom being the guy doing the buying to being bought as RoyalDutch Shell's takeover of the British oil and gascompany was announced only two months after he started the job.

The 55-year old Norwegian, also a passionate fan of Englishsoccer club Arsenal, will replace Goran Ando, who steps downafter five years in the job.

Another crucial task for the new chairman will be to retaininvestor trust after the company cut its long-term growthrevenue outlook twice within nine months in 2016.

Novo now has a long-term target of 5 percent revenue growth,a far cry from the from the double-digit growth achieved in 2015and reflecting a more challenging diabetes market amid increasedcompetition and price erosion.

"Helge is very strong strategically and very orientedtowards growth," said former Statoil chairman Svein Rennemo, whoworked closely with Lund for several years.

Lund will work with a relatively new management team,including Chief Executive Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen, who startedlast year, and Karsten Munk Knudsen, who became finance chieflast month.

(Reporting by Stine JacobsenEditing by David Goodman)