Shareholders approve N17.42 for GSK buyback

The minority shareholders of Glaxo SmithKline Consumer Nigeria Plc have agreed that their shares should be acquired at the rate of N17.42 per unit as the company concludes the process of delisting from the Nigerian Exchange Limited.

In a corporate notice filed by GSK on the NGX on Friday, the shareholders approved the share buyback rate among other resolutions at the court-ordered meeting between the parties to the Scheme of Arrangement.

Earlier in the year, the Nigerian subsidiary of the multinational, GSK, in a statement signed by its Company Secretary, Frederick Ichekwai, revealed that it planned to stop doing business in the country and move to a third-party distribution model for its drugs and consumer healthcare goods.

At the court-ordered meeting on Tuesday, the Scheme of Arrangement dated November 6, 2023, was approved, as well as the increase of the distributable reserves of the company to N2bn as a result of the capital contribution by GSK of a portion of its trade debts.

“Other than Setfirst Limited and SmithKline Beecham Limited, who have notified the company that they have elected not to receive their portion of the initial cash distribution, and, instead, to contribute their share of it, the shareholders of the company be paid N17.42 per share for every share held in the company within 10 business days of the effective date,” part of the resolutions of the meeting read.

Once the shareholders were paid, the shares of the company would be delisted from the Daily Official List of the NGX.

 The multinational had received ‘No Objection’ to its planned Scheme of Arrangement from the regulatory authorities.

GSK UK currently holds about 555,081,925 shares (or 46.42 per cent stake) of GSK Nigeria through its proxies, Setfirst Limited and SmithKline Beecham Limited.