Pfizer Sells Additional $2.6 Billion Stake in Haleon, Continuing Full Exit from Consumer Health Venture

Recently,PfizerSelling approximately 700 million sharesHaleon（Haleon）Shares, equivalent to approximately 7.7% of the latter's shares, with an estimated transaction value of£2.6 billionPfizer sold Haleon shares last year, including a £2.4 billion overnight trade in autumn.

Pfizer's revenue performance was outstanding in the first three quarters of 2024. The third-quarter revenue reached $17.702 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of 33.78% (or 31%, depending on different reports and calculation methods), surpassing market estimates. In mid-2024, Pfizer raised its full-year revenue guidance from the initial $58.5 billion~$61.5 billion (or $59.5 billion~$62.5 billion) to $61 billion~$64 billion.

PeelingHaleon

Haleon could be said to have been born with a silver spoon in its mouth, formed by the merger of GSK and Pfizer's consumer healthcare divisions in December 2018, with GSK holding 68% of the shares and Pfizer holding 32% at that time.

However, this is not a strong alliance between multinational pharmaceutical companies, but rather more like a premeditated abandonment by GSK and Pfizer from the very beginning. Similar to the consumer healthcare businesses of most multinational pharmaceutical companies, Haleon was also destined to face the fate of being spun off from the start.

In July 2022, Haleon was officially spun off and subsequently listed on both the London Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange, successfully completing its solo journey. This spin-off also became one of the major corporate changes for GSK in the past 20 years, with the post-spin-off GSK focusing on pharmaceuticals and vaccine businesses.

Haleon's Performance is Strong After Spin-off: The first full-year results since the spin-off from GSK in 2023 show that Haleon's revenue reached £11.3 billion in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 4.1%, with organic revenue growth of 8.0%. The adjusted operating profit was £2.549 billion, a year-on-year increase of 10.4%.

Although Haleon's revenue has been stable, Pfizer and GSK continue to reduce their holdings in its stock.

In May and October 2023, GSK sold Haleon shares in two tranches. In January 2024, GSK sold another 3.2% stake in Haleon. In May 2024, GSK announced the sale of all remaining Haleon shares, completely exiting the consumer healthcare sector.

GSK Makes a Clean Exit, Pfizer Follows Suit. As early as the beginning of 2022, Pfizer revealed plans to divest its 32% stake in Haleon "in a disciplined manner." In March 2024, Pfizer sold approximately 630 million shares of its stake in Haleon, reducing its ownership from 32% to around 24%.

This reduction represents another divestment by Pfizer from Haleon.

Spin-offs Become Industry Trend

In the past two years, it has become a common trend for large pharmaceutical companies to spin off their consumer healthcare businesses. Unlike the approach taken over a decade ago—relying on massive mergers and acquisitions to aggressively expand their territories—the pharmaceutical giants are now opting to divest businesses that are not strongly related to their core operations, aiming to achieve mutual success with a more relaxed strategy.

For the spun-off consumer health business, it is not necessarily a bad thing. Many companies, like Haleon, have achieved better development after being spun off, creating a win-win situation for both parties.

Haleon, Kenvue, Alcon, and Organon are representatives that have performed relatively well after being spun off in recent years.

In 2022, Johnson & Johnson spun off its consumer health division from its pharmaceuticals and medical devices businesses, establishing it as an independent company named Kenvue, which went public. In 2023, Kenvue became one of the largest U.S. IPOs of the year, with a market value surpassing $50 billion at one point, creating a miracle in the history of "spin-off" listings. Its first annual report also showed strong performance. Financial data revealed that in 2023, Kenvue's net sales reached $15.444 billion, achieving organic growth of approximately 5%.

Alcon was acquired by Novartis in 2008 and had been operating as the second-largest business unit under the Novartis Group. However, due to dissatisfaction with Alcon's revenue performance, Novartis spun it off in 2018. In the first half of 2024, the company’s sales reached $4.9 billion, a year-on-year increase of 4%, or 7% growth at constant exchange rates.

In order to focus more on their respective core businesses, in June 2021, Merck completed the spin-off of Organon, and Organon's stock began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on the same day. In 2022, Organon’s global revenue reached $6.2 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 2% (or an increase of 4% if foreign exchange impacts are excluded). In the first quarter of 2024, its revenue was $1.622 billion, representing a year-on-year growth of 7% at constant exchange rates. The biosimilar business is a key area that Organon is striving to develop. In the first quarter of 2024, biosimilar revenue reached $170 million, increasing by 46% year-on-year, accounting for just over 10% of the total revenue.