Unilever's $68B Bid for GSK Consumer Healthcare Fails as GSK Pursues IPO of the Unit

This article is sourced from: Capital邦

On January 17, Capital.com reported that GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.US) recently announced the rejection of three non-binding acquisition offers from Unilever (UL.US) for its consumer healthcare business.

GSK confirmed in a statement that on December 20, 2021, Unilever made an acquisition offer of 50 billion pounds to GSK, including 41.7 billion pounds in cash and 8.3 billion pounds in Unilever shares.

The consumer healthcare business is a joint venture between GSK and Pfizer (PFE.US), with GSK holding a 68% controlling stake and Pfizer holding a 32% stake.

GSK Rejected All Three Bids, Citing They Fundamentally Undervalued the Consumer Healthcare Business and Its Future Prospects.

GSK stated that the board highly values creating maximum value for GSK shareholders and has carefully evaluated each proposal from Unilever. In this process, the board and its advisors assessed the suggestions related to the completed financial planning evaluation to support the proposed business spin-off in mid-2022, including the expected sales growth.

Previously, GSK announced a spin-off plan. The company intends to spin off its consumer healthcare business into an independent company and list it separately by mid-2022, which is the company's largest restructuring in 20 years.