GSK has announced its intention to divest approximately 385 million ordinary shares in consumer healthcare company Haleon.
This equates to approximately 4.2% of Haleon’s issued share capital and represents the company’s entire remaining shareholding.
The decision comes after GSK spun off its consumer healthcare business in July 2022, resulting in the creation of Haleon as an independent entity.
The original consumer healthcare business was a joint venture between GSK and Pfizer, with ownership stakes of 68% and 32%, respectively. The initial offloading involved 270 million Haleon shares held by GSK.
Post-spin-off, GSK retained a 12.94% interest in Haleon.
In May 2023, GSK initiated another divestiture process by announcing the sale of a 2.9% stake in Haleon for 拢885.6m ($1.07bn).
Following disposals made public on 12 May 2023, 6 October 2023, and 16 January 2024, GSK has sold a total of 810 million ordinary shares in Haleon.
These transactions have reduced its stake in the company to the current 4.2%.
The latest divestiture will be executed through a private placement of ordinary shares to institutional investors.
The offering’s price will be set via an accelerated book-building process that will commence immediately.
In a stock filing, GSK said: 鈥淎 further announcement will be made following completion of the bookbuild and pricing of the offering.鈥�
To facilitate this transaction, GSK also entered a secondary block trade agreement with BofA Securities and Goldman Sachs International, which will serve as the joint global coordinators for the deal.
The latest development comes after GSK concluded the acquisition of Aiolos Bio in a deal that could reach $1.4bn, marking a significant expansion of GSK鈥檚 respiratory biologics portfolio.
The agreement comprises an upfront payment of $1bn and $400m in regulatory milestone payments.
Through the deal, GSK will gain access to AIO-001, a long-acting anti-thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) monoclonal antibody.
