London (Reuters) -GSK, a British drug company, said on Wednesday that Haleon, a consumer health joint venture between Pfizer and GSK, will become a separate, publicly traded company in July. Pfizer plans to sell its 32% share of Haleon.
Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) has said in the past that it would try to sell its shares in Haleon, the world’s largest consumer health business. Haleon makes Sensodyne toothpaste and Advil painkillers, among other products.
GSK, which owns and controls Haleon, said in February that the US drug company would keep its stake.It also said that Pfizer would put two people on Haleon’s board and that GSK would stop being on the board.
GSK’s most recent statement suggested that Pfizer’s board nominees would stay even though the U.S. drugmaker planned to sell up. GSK said that Pfizer would leave in a “disciplined manner.”
The British drug company also said that GSK was going to sell its share of Haleon in a “disciplined” way.
GSK has asked Britain’s regulator to list Haleon on the London Stock Exchange on July 18 and said it planned to apply soon to list the health business on the New York Stock Exchange.
GSK said that Haleon was likely to have above-market annual organic revenue growth of 4% to 6% in the middle term.
Haleon’s main competitors in the market for over-the-counter drugs, vitamins, and oral care products (OTC: BAYRY) are Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), and Bayer.
Last year, GSK said that Unilever’s (NYSE:UL) offer of £50 billion ($68 billion) for Haleon was too low for the business. In January, Unilever gave up on the idea.
Before the spinoff, GSK and Pfizer will get money from the holding company for Haleon. GSK said that it would get more than 7 billion pounds in cash from the split.
The company said that after the spinoff, GSK shareholders would own at least 54.5 percent of Haleon’s total issued ordinary share capital, and GSK itself would own 6 percent.
After the split, GSK will focus on making medicines and vaccines, but it will no longer be able to count on steady income from consumer health to make up for some of the uncertainty of making new drugs.
GSK has tried to strengthen its drug pipeline in response to pressure from shareholders like activist investor Elliot.
It has also bought other companies. In a $1.9 billion deal, it agreed to buy cancer drug maker Sierra Oncology (NASDAQ:SRRA), and it announced plans to pay up to $3.3 billion for vaccine maker Affinivax.
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