Shares of Johnson & Johnson‘s consumer-health spinoff Kenvue jumped 20% in afternoon trading Thursday after its market debut on the New York Stock Exchange, making it the biggest U.S. IPO in more than a year.
The new company opened at $25.53 per share after originally pricing its initial public offering at $22 Wednesday night, toward the high end of its target range.
At its opening price, Kenvue had an implied valuation of nearly $48 billion.
Kenvue sold 172.8 million shares in the offering, raising $3.8 billion and putting the company at a valuation of roughly $41 billion. The company initially planned to sell 151 million shares.
The company, which trades under the ticker KVUE, holds a wealth of widely known consumer brands such as Band-Aid, Tylenol, Listerine, Neutrogena, Aveeno and J&J’s namesake baby powder.
“Millions of consumers around the world this morning wake up with a Kenvue product in their home,” CEO Thibaut Mongon, told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” Thursday morning ahead of the stock’s debut.
Mongon previously served as J&J’s executive vice president and worldwide chair of consumer health. He will sit on Kenvue’s board.
Thibaut Mongon, CEO of Kenvue Inc. a Johnson & Johnson’s consumer-health business, rings the opening bell to celebrate it’s IPO at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., May 4, 2023.
Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters
Kenvue’s IPO marks the largest restructuring move in J&J’s 135-year history.
J&J first announced the spinoff in November 2021 as an effort to streamline operations and refocus on its faster-growing medical devices and pharmaceutical divisions.
But the company will generally be able to control the direction of Kenvue’s business and matters that shareholders vote on for the time being: The health giant will own 1.7 billion shares of Kenvue’s common stock after the IPO completes, representing a 90.9% stake. J&J will reduce the rest of its stake in Kenvue later this year.
Mongon told CNBC that J&J has been…
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