The pharmaceutical group GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) plans to create a new company, resulting from the separation of its consumer health branch. This entity, which will be called Haleon, will have a site in the town of Prangins.
“Our campus will be one of the major players in this new company,” said Aurélien Uldry, financial director of GSK Switzerland, quoted in a press release.
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Said site currently has 1,000 employees in Prangins and produces 252 million units per year, including the medicines Voltaren and Otrivin.
“The new company that will result from the proposed spin-off of Consumer Healthcare from GSK in mid-2022 will be called Haleon,” a combination of Old English terms meaning “healthy” and “strength,” GSK explained on Tuesday.
Takeover attempt
GSK Consumer Healthcare, a joint venture with Pfizer in which the British hold 68% and the American 32%, was the subject of an abortive attempt last month to buy Unilever for 50 billion pounds (62.6 billion francs). ), rejected by the British laboratory because it was undervalued, according to him.
The laboratory had indicated its intention to split and IPO this entity, which includes non-prescription drugs, toothpastes and parapharmacy, to focus on pharmacy, including vaccines and specialty drugs.
Headquarters near London
After “successful investments and strategic changes” over the past 8 years, the entity “generates annual sales of around 10 billion pounds” (12.5 billion francs), said the English giant in its press release.
The separation will be done through a split of at least 80% of GSK’s stake to its shareholders and the laboratory then plans a listing on the London Stock Exchange and in the United States. The headquarters of the new entity will be in Weybridge, south-west London.
GSK published mixed results for 2021 in early February, with 2021 profit down 24% due to an unfavorable comparison effect from asset disposals in 2020, as the British pharmaceutical giant struggled to find new momentum without a Covid-19 vaccine and with activist investors in ambush.