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Kimberly-Clark Corp. agreed to buy Kenvue Inc. in a cash and stock deal that values the consumer-health company that owns brands like Tylenol at about $40 billion.
Kenvue holders will get $3.50 per share in cash and 0.14625 Kimberly-Clark shares per Kenvue share, according to a statement Monday, for a total consideration of $21.01 a share based on Kimberly-Clark’s Friday closing price. Kenvue closed at $14.37 on Friday.
The deal has an enterprise value of about $48.7 billion, the companies said.
Current Kimberly-Clark shareholders would own about 54 percent of the combined companies, with Kenvue shareholders getting the rest.
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Shares of Kimberly-Clark, which owns the Kleenex and Huggies brands, fell 8 percent in premarket trading, with Kenvue soaring 18 percent.
Kenvue’s portfolio includes Neutrogena lotion, Listerine mouthwash, Benadryl allergy medicine and Band-Aid wound care products. The company has struggled since it was spun off from Johnson & Johnson. Activist investors have taken stakes in Kenvue after a string of disappointing financial results, and in July the company removed its Chief Executive Officer Thibaut Mongon.
The deal for Kenvue could be complicated by the US administration’s attacks on Tylenol, its biggest product. President Donald Trump said in September that pregnant women shouldn’t take the painkiller, claiming it potentially causes autism. Kenvue has pushed back against the assertion, saying it’s unsupported by scientific evidence.
Learn more:
Kenvue’s Options Limited by Trump Tylenol Claims, Considers Beauty Unit Sell-Off
According to sources familiar with the company, the American giant is considering divesting assets as it struggles with weakened customer demand and unproven claims from the US president that Tylenol could be linked to autism.
