GSK tan­goes with pri­vate eq­ui­ty play­ers to ex­plore $54B sale of con­sumer unit in­stead of IPO — re­port

The spin­out of Glax­o­SmithK­line’s con­sumer health unit could re­port­ed­ly take the form of a $54 bil­lion sale to pri­vate eq­ui­ty firms.

It would mark a piv­ot from pre­vi­ous plans to turn that group in­to its own list­ed com­pa­ny — one in which cur­rent GSK share­hold­ers can con­tin­ue to own a stake — amid in­tense pres­sure from a pair of ac­tivist in­vestors call­ing for a dras­tic shake­up at the top.

Ad­vent In­ter­na­tion­al, CVC Cap­i­tal Part­ners, KKR & Co and Per­mi­ra are among po­ten­tial suit­ors cur­rent­ly vet­ting the busi­ness, Bloomberg re­port­ed Tues­day, as are Black­stone and Car­lyle Group, which have been heav­i­ly in­volved in life sci­ences deals in re­cent years.

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