Glaxo sells stake in SA’s Aspen
GlaxoSmithKline has disposed of the final portion of its stake in South African drug company Aspen.
|||London - GlaxoSmithKline, the UK’s biggest drugmaker, disposed of the final portion of its stake in Aspen Pharmacare for about $619 million, less than a month after selling the South African company a portfolio of anaesthetic medicines.
Glaxo sold 28.2 million shares, equal to 6.2 percent of Aspen’s ordinary share capital, to institutional investors for R300 each or R8.47 billion ($619 million), according to a statement on Thursday. That was a 5 percent discount to Aspen’s closing price in Johannesburg on Wednesday of R316.87.
The sale ends Glaxo’s seven years as a shareholder in the Durban-based company, Africa’s biggest maker of generic drugs with sales in more than 150 countries. During that time the stock has risen six-fold, Glaxo said. The UK drugmaker sold the same number of shares in 2013 for about $694 million and again last year for about $842 million.
“Glaxo has had a long and successful partnership with Aspen and our investment in the company has grown in value significantly over time,” Chief Financial Officer Simon Dingemans said in the statement. Proceeds of the divestment will be used by Glaxo for general corporate purposes, the company said.
Aspen shares fell 3.4 percent to R306.14 as of 9.40am in Johannesburg. About 4 million shares traded, or more than triple the three-month daily average.
Glaxo this month appointed Emma Walmsley as chief executive officer to succeed Andrew Witty next year, tasking her with piloting cutting edge treatments for cancer and infectious diseases through clinical tests and onto pharmacy shelves to boost earnings. The stock rose 0.2 percent to 1 659 pence as of 8.29am in London, extending gains for the year to 23 percent.
Partnership unaffected
Glaxo sold Aspen the anaesthetics portfolio this month for as much as 280 million pounds ($364 million). The deal added to the anaesthetics Aspen bought in June from AstraZeneca of the UK for as much as $770 million. The South African company is also expanding in China.
Glaxo’s sale “in no way affects the ongoing collaboration between Aspen and Glaxo in South Africa and a number of other trading relationships between the two companies”, Aspen said in a separate statement. Glaxo Chief Strategy Officer David Redfern to remain a member of Aspen board of directors.
Citigroup Global Markets and UBS will be joint bookrunners in the offering. The profit from the disposal will not be included in Glaxo’s core operating profit and core earnings per share in 2016.
BLOOMBERG