Horlicks Finds A New Home: Hindustan Unilever Emerges Favourite To Buy GSK’s Healthcare Unit

The board of Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), the Indian arm of the UK-based FMCG giant, Unilever Plc, has approved a merger with GSK’s healthcare unit in India, as reported by Financial Express (FE). While HUL is India’s largest pure-play FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) company, GSK (GlaxoSmithKline) is a market leader in the health food segment in India.

“With this proposed strategic merger with GSK Consumer Healthcare India, we will be expanding our portfolio with great brands into a new category catering to the nutritional needs of our consumers. I’m confident that this merger will create significant shareholder value through both revenue growth and cost synergies,” said HUL CMD (Chairman and Managing Director), Sanjiv Mehta. GSK owns iconic Indian brands like Horlicks, Boost, ENO, Iodex and Crocin.

HUL will merge its businesses with the consumer healthcare assets of GSK India in an all-equity deal, which will value the latter’s market cap at Rs 31,700 crore.

“The turnover of our F&R (food and refreshment) business will exceed Rs 10,000 crore, and we will become one of the largest F&R businesses in the country. We look forward to welcoming new brands and great talent into the Unilever and HUL family, once the transaction is complete,” Mr Mehta stated,

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