The main stock indices of the United Kingdom rose on Monday, as an optimistic global attitude boosted economically sensitive industries such as commodities and banks, and as shares of Haleon, a pharmaceutical company split out from GSK, launched on the London Stock Exchange.
Analysts anticipate that the entity will have a market value of up to S$74.7 billion, which would significantly surpass the previous record IPO in the UK, which was held by mining behemoth Glencore's £38 billion offering in 2011.
After a Wall Street bounce on Friday, when better-than-expected results and diminishing fears of a massive 100-basis-point rate hike by the Federal Reserve this month lifted optimism, the worldwide mood was generally upbeat.
Haleon will be a global leader in consumer healthcare, including oral, respiratory, and digestive health, pain management, and vitamins and supplements, after the separation from GSK is finalized.
The company's brands include Sensodyne toothpaste, Voltaren anti-inflammatory cream, and Panadol and Advil pain relievers. Since 2016, Brian McNamara will continue to serve as Haleon CEO. Former Tesco CEO Dave Lewis serves as the company's non-executive chairman.
Based on the prospectus for the share offering published in June, Haleon's first-quarter 2022 revenue of £2.63 billion was up nearly 14% from the same period in 2021.
Profit before taxes increased by 33.9% to £465 million. In the fiscal year ending in December 2021, revenue decreased by 3.5% to £9.55 billion, while pretax profits increased by 2.8% to £1.64 billion.
The company is poised to improve on its track record and sustainably outpace the market in terms of growth. GSK stated in a statement that the fundamentals of the $160 billion consumer healthcare sector remain robust.
GSK's largest corporate reorganization in two decades, the demerger will enable the pharmaceutical company, which failed to produce its own COVID-19 vaccine during the pandemic, to concentrate on infectious diseases and vaccines.
Haleon's flotation is the biggest test for the City of London's financial health and demand for new listings, as the company is set to join GSK on the FTSE 100 index of blue-chip stocks.
Glencore, a mining and commodity firm, came on the stock market in 2011 with a market value of £38 billion, marking the last comparable IPO. It is a boon for the UK stock market at a time when chip designer Arm, controlled by Softbank of Japan, is geared up to choose New York for its return to the public trade.
