By Elena Vardon


Pfizer is raising around $4.27 billion from the sale of part of its stake in consumer-healthcare business Haleon.

The pharmaceutical giant is reducing its shareholding in Haleon to 22.6% from 32% previously through an off-market share buyback and the disposal of 790.6 million shares in the group, Haleon said on Tuesday.

Pfizer is selling 594 million ordinary shares in Haleon at 308 pence a share--representing a discount of around 7% to Friday's closing price of 332.30 pence--for around 1.83 billion pounds ($2.33 billion).

It also selling 196.6 million American depositary shares at $7.85 each for around $1.54 billion.

Haleon was formed in July 2019 via the merger of drugmaker GSK and Pfizer's consumer-healthcare businesses into a new joint-venture company, before being spun out and listed on the London Stock Exchange in July 2022. Pfizer--which then retained a 32% ownership in the group--said at the time of the demerger that it planned to exit its interest with the aim to maximize value for its shareholders.

This marks the first time that Pfizer trims its stake in the company, which houses Sensodyne toothpaste and Aquafresh mouthwash as well as over-the-counter medicines Panadol and Advil. GSK has been offloading its initial 12.9% shareholding to now own a 4.2% stake.

The move comes at a time of intense merger-and-acquisition activity in the pharmaceutical industry. Pfizer closed its $43 billion acquisition of biotech cancer-specialist Seagen in December. GSK, AstraZeneca, AbbVie and Novartis are among those who have inked multi-billion dollar deals in recent months.

Haleon also confirmed that it agreed to buy back 102.3 million in its own ordinary shares from Pfizer at the same price in pence as the offer's for around GBP315 million, equivalent to $400.9 million.

The London-listed group had initially announced that Pfizer would sell 630 million of its shares, which alongside the share buyback would have brought its stake down to 24%.

At 0955 GMT, Haleon shares edged down 1 pence, or 0.3%, to 314 pence.


Write to Elena Vardon at elena.vardon@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

03-19-24 0649ET