GlaxoSmithKline and Aspen Joining Hands

GlaxoSmithKline, UK drug maker sells half of its shares to Aspen Pharma care, the South Africa-based drug-maker, for $853 million.

GSK will hold 28.2 million Aspen shares and now continue to represent 6.2% shareholding. GSK noted that it will not dispose of any further shares in Aspen for at least 180 days.

GSK pay more attention to its sizeable dividend payments and sells of non-core investments, following the transaction, the company handled to give a discount in its share at a market price.

GSK is reorganizing amid a slump in sales and profit as its best-selling product, the asthma drug Advair, faces increased competition in the US. In 2013, GlaxoSmithKline sold about one-third of its stake in the South African firm for 7.1 billion rand ($571 million)

Simon Dingemans, GSK’s CFO, told Reuters that, “the selling of the Aspen shares would assist GSK’s plasticity to inject money in new prospects in the wake of a $20 billion-plus asset swap deal with Novartis, another global drug-maker”.

“As we continue to reshape the group around our core franchises and drive the benefits from the Novartis transaction, optimizing our financial flexibility to invest behind these priorities is key,” Dingemans added.

“As a result we have decided now is the right time to realize 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,” he continued.

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