On Jan 15, Pfizer Inc. (PFE, Financial) announced to sale of about 700 million ordinary shares of Haleon plc through a secondary offering. The sale is 7.7% of Haleon's issued share capital and will be undertaken following an accelerated book-building process dealing with institutional investors.

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Proceeding at speed, the book-building period opened straight away after the announcement, with the details and pricing of when it ends still to come. Once complete, Pfizer's stake in Haleon will fall from 15.0% to around 7.3%.

Pfizer's move comes after Haleon's spin-off as an independent consumer healthcare company, part of plans to reshape its portfolio. This transaction will not result in any proceeds to Haleon, which will not resume the issue of new shares or participate in the offering. Any money raised will go straight to Pfizer.

As lead managers on the offering, joint global coordinators and bookrunners are J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley. HSBC, BNP PARIBAS, Mizuho, and UBS are additional joint bookrunners, as are co-managers BofA Securities, Deutsche Numis, Goldman Sachs International and Loop Capital Markets.

Under this settlement, Pfizer has entered into a 60-day lock-up from the date of the settlement with the sale of Haleon shares, preventing further trading in the Haleon shares subject to this lock-up agreement within 60 days unless as permitted by the joint global coordinators under specific conditions or waivers.

That sale, which does not include American depositary shares, is subject to normal closing conditions. Pfizer said the announcement does not indicate a public offering or solicitation for the sale of the shares.