People with knowledge of the matter said that the Consumer Health Arm of Bloomberg GSK Plc picked corporate brokers ahead of its planned spinoff on the London Stock Exchange.
Haleon Plc chose Citigroup Inc. and UBS Group AG as its brokers, who will be the go-to advisers on everything from strategy to shareholder engagement, the people said. The banks were selected after a beauty parade a few weeks ago, but they asked not to be identified because the information is private.
According to the people, Haleon is expected to be valued at around 40 billion $49 billion. Citigroup, which is already a corporate broker to GSK, is expected to maintain its role with the British pharmaceutical giant, the people said.
Citigroup was a long-term adviser for GSK and was working with the drugmaker when Unilever Plc made a 50 billion approach for the consumer unit. The US bank advised GSK when it bought Novartis AG's minority stake in the division in 2018 and worked on several other transactions over the years.
Spokespeople for GSK and Citigroup didn't immediately respond to a request for comment, while a representative for UBS didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Haleon owns a sprawling portfolio of brands from Advil painkillers to Sensodyne toothpaste and is poised to become one of the biggest companies in the UK market. While corporate broker roles offer only nominal fees, they are hotly contested as they can lead to more lucrative work on capital market transactions and acquisitions.
According to a filing this month, Haleon is expected to start trading on July 18. The company's market value was about 90.2 billion at the time of 9: 55 a.m. Tuesday in London.
The win is a big coup for UBS, which doesn't have a long history of working with GSK. The Swiss bank has the advantage of being free of conflicting assignments, since it is not a broker to Haleon competitors like Unilever or Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc.
According to data provider ARL, UBS is the fourth biggest corporate broker to London-listed companies. It works with companies valued at 595 billion at the end of May, while Citigroup ranks fifth with 576.5 billion worth of broking customers.
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