Pfizer to sell about $3.25 billion stake in Sensodyne-maker Haleon, bookrunner says
4:52 pm Monday, September 30th, 2024
By Shanima A
(Reuters) – Pfizer’s stake sale in British consumer healthcare company Haleon has been upsized by 100 million shares to 640 million shares worth about $3.25 billion with strong demand from investors, a bookrunner familiar with the offering said on Monday.
Pfizer, the largest shareholder in Haleon, last year said it had planned to cut its ownership in a “slow and methodical” manner within months.
Earlier on Monday a bookrunner said that Pfizer intends to sell about 540 million shares in Haleon, reducing its interest in the Sensodyne maker to 16.2% from 22.6%.
Orders below 3.80 pounds per share in the secondary offering risk missing out, with books being multiple times oversubscribed at that level, the bookrunner said.
BofA Securities and Goldman Sachs International are acting as joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners for the offering.
Haleon shares ended trading at 3.929 pounds per share.
Haleon separately said on Monday it had agreed to make an off-market purchase of about 230 million pounds ($308.18 million) worth of ordinary shares from Pfizer.
The purchase price to be paid by Haleon in the share buyback will be equal to the offering price of secondary sale of shares, the company added.
In March, the U.S. pharma major had sold about $3.5 billion worth stake in Haleon, the first such sale since the maker of Panadol and Advil painkillers was spun off from GSK and listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2022.
Pfizer will remain as the top shareholder in Haleon after the sale, according to LSEG data.
GSK in May raised 1.25 billion pounds from a sale of its remaining stake in Haleon, created in 2019 through a merger of the company and Pfizer’s consumer healthcare businesses.
Last month, Haleon forecast high single-digit growth in organic operating profit in 2024 amid strong demand for its oral care products and vitamins.
($1 = 0.7463 pounds)
(Reporting by Shanima A in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber, Sriraj Kalluvila and Anna Driver)
