Sector News

Categories

Borderless Insights

Image
Negotiating Terms with a New Employer
Image
Beyond Flowers and Platitudes: Reclaiming the Essence of International Women’s Day
Image
Visionary or ‘Stuck-in-the-Mud’? Where are you on Workplace Flexibility?

GSK to pocket $890 mln by halving stake in S.African drugmaker

March 14, 2015
Life sciences
(Reuters) – GlaxoSmithKline has decided to take profits in Aspen Pharmacare by halving its stake in the South African drugmaker, following a long investment in the firm.
 
The sale will be conducted through a share placing at a discount to the market price, which is expected to raise around $890 million.
 
Britain’s biggest drugmaker said on Thursday it would remain a 6.2 percent shareholder in Aspen and it had undertaken not to sell any more shares in the South African group for 180 days.
 
A source familiar with the matter said a price range of 365 to 385 rand per share had been set for the placement, representing a discount of 5.3 to 10.2 percent to Aspen’s closing price on Thursday.
 
The share sale is being run by Citi and UBS.
 
Simon Dingemans, GSK’s chief financial officer, said the disposal would help give his company flexibility to invest in new opportunities in the wake of a $20 billion-plus asset swap transaction with Novartis.
 
“As we continue to reshape the group around our core franchises and drive the benefits from the Novartis transaction, optimising our financial flexibility to invest behind these priorities is key,” he said in a statement.
 
“As a result we have decided now is the right time to realise further value from this successful relationship. We continue to believe in the strategy of Aspen and we remain committed to working together in the future.”
 
GSK said that the net profit on the disposal would not be included in core operating profit and core earnings in 2015, and GSK would no longer account for Aspen as an associate. (Reporting by Freya Berry, Vikram Subhedar and Ben Hirschler; Editing by Pamela Barbaglia, Greg Mahlich)

comments closed

Related News

May 17, 2024

With new partnership, Galapagos takes decentralized CAR-T manufacturing quest nationwide

Life sciences

Though Galapagos has undergone plenty of staff shake-ups and strategy revamps in recent years, the company is sticking strong to the CAR-T pivot first unveiled by CEO Paul Stoffels, M.D., following his arrival at the biotech from Johnson & Johnson in early 2022.

Read more
May 17, 2024

Sanofi invests €1 Billion to boost drug manufacturing in France

Life sciences

The new investment is expected to create more than 500 jobs and significantly strengthen France’s ability to control the production of essential medicines from start to finish, the company stated. According to Sanofi, this plan increases the amount Sanofi has committed to major projects in France since the Covid-19 pandemic to over €3.5 billion.

Read more
May 17, 2024

Lonza, busy with capacity upgrades and exec turnover, hints at CDMO industry rebound

Life sciences

A tough biotech funding environment and a downturn in COVID-related contracts has weighed heavily on CDMOs of all stripes in recent years. Now, with a new CEO waiting in the wings, Swiss manufacturing juggernaut Lonza is attempting to reassure the market that an industry stabilization is on the horizon.

Read more
More news

How can we help you?

We're easy to reach