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Pharma giant GSK has exited its investment in its former healthcare arm Haleon after selling off its final stake in the demerged business.
GSK announced this morning that it had sold its final 385 million shares in Haleon at 324p per share, raising £1.25bn.
The share sale represents its fourth sell-off since demerging its consumer health business in July 2022, raising a total of £3.9bn.
Following settlement of the placing, GSK will have fully exited its position and will no longer hold any ordinary shares in Haleon after initially retaining a 12.9% stake as part of the spin-off.
GSK said its exit of its position in Haleon was consistent with its previous commitments to monetise its holding in a disciplined manner.
Haleon shares floated in 2022 at 324p per share, but has dipped below 250p on concerns over its exposure to legal claims over Zantac, before recovering back to above its float price in early 2023.
Haleon shares are currently trading at 330.9p and are up 2.1% year-to-date.
Morning update
Unilever has announced it has kicked off its up to €1.5bn share buyback scheme announced in February.
The first tranche of the €1.5bn programme will be for an aggregate market value equivalent of up to €850m, which will be bought back in the form of Unilever plc ordinary shares.
The tranche will commence on 17 May 2024 and will end on or before 30 August 2024. The maximum number of shares to be bought back by Unilever plc is 250.2 million.
Yesterday in the City
The FTSE 100 edged back 0.1% yesterday to 8,438.6p.
Premier Foods ended the day up 0.8% at 170p after posting a double-digit rise in annual sales and profits.
The day’s risers included THG, up 5.7% to 75.25p, Nichols, up 4.9% to 1,075p, WH Smith, up 3.5% to 1,173p, PZ Cussons, up 2.8% to 111.2p, Sainsbury’s, up 1.8% to 282.2p, B&M European Value Retail, up 1.8% to 544.6p, Deliveroo, up 1.8% to 139.8p and Bakkavor, up 1.6% to 127p.
Fallers yesterday included Naked Wines, down 4.5% to 49.7p, Greencore, down 2.5% to 135.6p, Domino’s Pizza Group, down 1.7% to 338.8p, Britvic, down 1.5% to 1,003p, McBride, down 1.4% to 109.5p and Tesco, down 1.3% to 306.7p.
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