GSK sells off stake in Aspen for $853m
pharmafile | March 13, 2015 | News story | Sales and Marketing | Africa, China, GSK, Novartis, Singapore, aspen, merger, redfern
GlaxoSmithKline has sold off half its stake in South Africa’s Aspen Pharmacare in a move that will net the British pharma giant $853 million.
This makes it the second time GSK has resorted to banking in on its grip of Africa’s biggest drugmaker, after it cashed in on stock initially back in 2013 and using the multimillion-pound windfall for what it called at the time ‘general corporate purposes’.
Now selling approximately half of its 12.4% stake in Aspen, the disposal will be through a placing of ordinary shares in Aspen to institutional investors.
Simon Dingemans, GSK’s chief financial officer, says: “GSK has a long and successful commercial partnership with Aspen and our investment in the company has grown in value significantly over time. As we continue to reshape the Group around our core franchises and drive the benefits from the Novartis transaction, optimising our financial flexibility to invest behind these priorities is key.
“As a result we have decided now is the right time to realise further value from this successful relationship. We continue to believe in the strategy of Aspen and we remain committed to working together in the future.”
GSK is clearly making efforts to reorganise amid a fall in sales in its respiratory portfolio, most notably through its asthma drug Advair as it faces increased competition. The company just completed a deal with Novartis to sell its oncology franchise and acquire the Swiss drugmaker’s vaccines business.
The firm has not kept out of the news this week what with establishing a new HQ in Singapore to bolster its presence in the region, along with the not-so-positive revelations centering around staff conflict and dismissals in China related to bribery scandals in the country.
Following settlement of this latest sale of Aspen however, GSK will hold 28.2 million ordinary shares in the company, representing approximately 6.2% of the issued share capital.
Aspen has confirmed that David Redfern, recently appointed as GSK’s nominee director to replace Mr Abbas Hussain on the board, will remain a director of Aspen in the wake of this sale news.
Brett Wells
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