Pharma Giant Pfizer To Start Selling Haleon Stake Within Months, CFO Says

Pfizer Inc PFE is reportedly looking to start selling its stake in Haleon plc HLN. 

In June last, the pharma giant announced its plans to exit the ownership interest in Haleon in a disciplined manner after the demerger.

Pfizer's CFO, Dave Denton, told the Financial Times that it intends to offload that stake in a "slow and methodical" manner within months.

Pfizer retained its 32% stake in Haleon. GSK Plc GSK has up to 13.5% in Haleon, while GSK shareholders will own the remaining 54.5%.

"We love the Haleon business, but it's not strategic," said Denton. Shares in Haleon have jumped almost 14% since the listing, valuing Pfizer's stake at about £10 billion. 

However, Haleon's market capitalization remains significantly below the takeover offer of £50 billion from Unilever plc UL.

The report added that Pfizer would shift its focus from pursuing mergers and acquisitions to replenish its drug pipeline to boosting shareholder returns.

Haleon reported a fall in quarterly adjusted profit margin, mainly because of "cost inflation and incremental standalone costs". The adjusted operating profit margin of 23.1% declined by 90bps at actual exchange rates and by 140bps at constant currency.

Q1 reported revenue of £2.99 billion (+13.7% Y/Y), +9.9% organic with price +7.1% and favorable volume/mix +2.8%.

The company reaffirms FY 2023 guidance, with organic revenue growth expected to be towards the upper end of the 4-6% range.

Price Action: HLN shares are down 1.69% at $8.72 premarket on the last check Wednesday.