Unilever offers to buy the consumer health branch of GSK, which refuses | Photo credits: © Unilever
LONDON, Jan 15 (Reuters) – Unilever confirmed it had approached Glaxosmithkline to take over the pharmaceutical group’s consumer healthcare arm on Saturday, a £50 billion (60 billion euro) offer that won was rejected by GSK.
“GSK Consumer Healthcare is a leader in the attractive consumer healthcare space and would be a very good strategic fit as Unilever continues to reshape its portfolio,” the UK consumer products group said in a statement.
“There can be no certainty that an agreement will be reached,” Unilever added.
GlaxoSmithKline announced for its part that it had rejected Unilever’s offer on the grounds that it “fundamentally undervalues” the activity and its future prospects.
In its press release, GSK added that it had received three offers from Unilever, the most recent on December 20 comprising a component of 41.7 billion pounds in cash and 8.3 billion in Unilever shares.
According to the Sunday Times, the offer was also considered too low by Pfizer, which holds a minority stake in the consumer health arm of the British pharmaceutical group. It is not certain that Unilever will raise its offer, adds the newspaper.
GSK’s consumer health arm includes painkiller Panadol and toothpaste Sensodyne, among others. (William Schomberg in London and Mrinmay Dey in Bangalore, French version Tangi Salaün and Gilles Guillaume)