Unilever wanted to buy part of GSK for 50 billion pounds, which it refused

British food and consumer maker Unilever wanted to buy the consumer health division of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) for 50 billion pounds (about 1.5 trillion kroner). It operates as a joint venture in partnership with the American pharmaceutical company Pfizer. GSK Corporation announcedThat Unilever made a total of three offers last year, but the company dismissed them as insufficient.

GSK reported that Unilever’s last offering was from December 20th. All offers submitted are non-binding. The latter consisted of cash of 41.7 billion pounds and Unilever shares worth 8.3 billion pounds. However, the GSK management decided to refuse it too, since, according to him, it underestimated the required division and its prospects.

Unilever and GlaxoSmithKline confirmed the conditions of the offer shortly after it was reported to The Sunday Times. Unilever said in a short statement that GSK Consumer Healthcare is a leader in attractive consumer healthcare and that it will strategically fit into the Unilever Group.

GSK intends to separate the Consumer Health Care division from its organizational structure in the middle of this year. The division manufactures products such as Advil or Sensodyne toothpaste. After merging a similar division of Novartis in 2015 and Pfizer in 2019, GSK’s consumer healthcare division generated annual revenue of £9.6 billion (about CZK 282 billion).

Unilever sells a wide range of consumer goods, from Hellmann’s mayonnaise to Lipton tea to Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. The most popular body care brands include Dove soaps and Rexona deodorants.

Unilever also operates in the Czech Republic, where its profit fell by nearly a third to 36.9 million kroner in the previous year. Then the company’s net sales fell five percent to 4.14 billion crowns.