Proactive Investors - GSK PLC (LON:GSK) confirmed it has raised a total of £3.9 billion through the exit of its stake in Haleon PLC (LON:HLN), the healthcare firm which was spun out by the pharma giant back in 2022.
On Friday, the Brentford-based firm revealed it raised £1.24 billion after it sold the final part of its stake in Haleon, offloading more than 385 million shares at 324p each.
It represents a 2% discount to the Haleon’s closing price of 331p on Thursday.
Since Haleon was spun out in July 2022, GSK has slowly sold off the 12.94% stake it kept, undergoing share sales in May and October last year as well as January 2024, concluded by today’s exit.
GSK has been trading at some of its highest levels since it spun out the Sensodyne toothpaste maker, with current chief executive Emma Walmsley lasering in on work regarding cancer, vaccines and infectious diseases.
In the last few weeks, Walmsley raised the full-year outlook on the back of strong first-quarter results, with analysts saying performances are starting to allay long-held concerns.
Derren Nathan at Hargreaves Lansdown (LON:HRGV) said: “Prudent cost management has allowed underlying earnings to rise at a faster rate. But the one cost line GSK has been investing in is R&D.
"That’s pleasing to see given the clinical success emerging from the pipeline. With four positive phase III readouts so far this year the odds of further approvals are on the increase.”