The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal High Court have both authorized Glaxo Smith Kline Consumer Nigeria Plc’s plan to buy back shares from minority shareholders.
This was disclosed in a notice filed with Nigerian Exchange Limited on Thursday.
GSK announced plans to close its operations in the country in August, stating that its parent company, GSK Plc UK, had decided to stop commercialising prescription medicines and vaccines through its Nigerian subsidiary and transition to a third-party direct distribution model for pharmaceutical products.
The pharma stated that the regulatory clearances came after a court-ordered meeting in December, during which the company’s shareholders approved the planned Scheme of Arrangement.
The minority investors agreed that their shares should be acquired at the rate of N17. 42 per unit.
It indicated that an application to delist the company’s shares from the NGX would be made soon.
The company’s withdrawal plans elicited reactions from shareholders, who urged the government to reverse the trend of corporations departing the country.
In 2023, a number of global corporations announced the closure of their operations in Nigeria.
Apart from GSK, Procter & Gamble, Jumia Food, Bolt Food, Sanofi & Aventi, and Equinor have either closed or declared plans to leave the nation.
GSK Nigeria was incorporated in 1971. 46.4 per cent of the shares of the company are held by Setfirst Limited and Smithkline Beecham Limited (both incorporated in the United Kingdom); and 53.6 per cent by Nigerian shareholders.
