Pharmaceutical giant, Pfizer has announced to cut its stake from 32 per cent to 24 per cent in Sensodyne toothpaste producer Haleon.
According to reports making rounds in the media, the pharmaceutical group plans to lower its holding in Haleon by selling about 630m shares for over £ 2 billion. The company will sell this at an offer price that is expected to be announced on or around today, 19 March and decided by a book-building process.
Dave Denton, the Chief Financial Officer at Pfizer said the sale would happen in a ‘slow and methodical’ manner in order not to compromise Haleon’s market valuation.
Haleon said it would purchase £ 315 million worth of shares as part of the offer, having committed to repurchase £ 500 million of its stock this year. Based on Haleon’s latest share price, Pfizer could receive approximately £2.3billion in total from the sale.
Recall that Pfizer announced last May that it was looking to sell down its Haleon stake to fund shareholder returns and reduce debts incurred from a $ 43 billion takeover of biotechnology company Seagen.
Haleon was formed in 2019 when Pfizer and fellow pharmaceutical firm GSK merged their consumer healthcare businesses, whose brands ranged from painkiller Advil to Aquafresh toothpaste and Beechams cold and flu relief.
It was spun off two years ago with a market value of about £31billion in what was the largest European listing since commodities business Glencore went public in 2011 on the London Stock Exchange.