GSK rejects £50 billion bid for Consumer Healthcare unit

17 January 2022

Shares of UK drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline (LSE: GSK) were up 4.8% at 1,721.11 pence in early trading today, as the company rejected an unsolicited offer on Saturday for its Consumer Healthcare business, which could have been the biggest pharma M&A deal for several years.

The latest proposal from Unilever (LSE: ULVR) received on December 20, 2021 was for a total acquisition value of £50 billion ($68.4 billion) comprising £41.7 billion in cash and £8.3 billion in Unilever shares. The latter’s stock fell 6.5% to 3,681.20 pence this morning.

Unilever has previously acquired GSK’s Horlicks brand and other consumer healthcare nutrition brands.

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