Merck successfully divests Consumer Health

Mer­ck, a sci­ence and tech­nol­o­gy com­pa­ny, has suc­cess­ful­ly com­plet­ed the sale of its Con­sumer Health busi­ness to Proc­ter & Gam­ble (P&G), fol­low­ing close con­sul­ta­tion with employ­ee rep­re­sen­ta­tives, the approval of all rel­e­vant reg­u­la­to­ry author­i­ties and the ful­fil­ment of oth­er cus­tom­ary clos­ing con­di­tions. The suc­cess­ful com­ple­tion of the trans­ac­tion marks a fur­ther step in the company’s strate­gic focus on inno­va­tion dri­ven busi­ness­es and trans­for­ma­tion towards a lead­ing sci­ence and tech­nol­o­gy com­pa­ny. The busi­ness trans­ferred to P&G on Decem­ber 1, 2018. The busi­ness trans­ferred to P&G on Decem­ber 1, 2018. The cash pur­chase price is approx­i­mate­ly € 3.4 billion.

“The suc­cess­ful com­ple­tion of this trans­ac­tion is an impor­tant mile­stone for both Mer­ck and Con­sumer Health. We are very pleased that togeth­er with P&G we have suc­cess­ful­ly deliv­ered on an ambi­tious time­frame in clos­ing this trans­ac­tion. P&G offers excel­lent oppor­tu­ni­ties for the devel­op­ment of the Con­sumer Health busi­ness and we wish our col­leagues all the best for the future.”
Belén Gar­i­jo, Mem­ber of the Exec­u­tive Board and CEO Health­care of Merck

“After deduct­ing tax­es and trans­ac­tion relat­ed effects, Mer­ck will pri­mar­i­ly use the net cash pro­ceeds of approx­i­mate­ly € 2.7 bil­lion to fur­ther reduce its finan­cial debt. With the suc­cess­ful and time­ly com­ple­tion of the trans­ac­tion, Mer­ck has now hit its 2018 lever­age tar­get of a net debt to EBITDA pre ratio of less than 2. Fur­ther­more we are increas­ing our flex­i­bil­i­ty to focus on inno­va­tion dri­ven busi­ness­es with­in Merck‘s three busi­ness sec­tors,” said Mar­cus Kuh­n­ert, Mem­ber of the Exec­u­tive Board and Chief Finan­cial Offi­cer of Merck.
Mer­ck and P&G pur­sued the Con­sumer Health trans­ac­tion through the sale of shares in sev­er­al Mer­ck sub­sidiaries as well as so called asset deals. The trans­ac­tion com­pris­es the Con­sumer Health busi­ness in 44 coun­tries with more than 900 prod­ucts and two pro­duc­tion facil­i­ties in Spit­tal (Aus­tria) and Goa (India). Around 3,300 employ­ees have trans­ferred to P&G. Mer­ck and P&G have signed a num­ber of sup­ply and ser­vice agree­ments to ensure a smooth tran­si­tion of the business.