J&J's Offer for Kenvue Shares Oversubscribed

By Dean Seal

Johnson and Johnson's $40 billion exchange offer for shares in Kenvue was oversubscribed, with fewer than 24% of the tendered shares set to be exchanged.

The healthcare giant said Monday that when the offer period closed at the end of last week, investors tendered more than 802 million J&J shares to be swapped for Kenvue stock at a 7% discount.

J&J intends to accept nearly 191 million, or about 23.8%, of the tendered shares in exchange for 1.53 billion shares of Kenvue, the operator of brands such as Listerine and Band-Aid that J&J took public via spinoff in May.

The stock exchange offer was announced on July 24 and closed on Friday, with the 23.8% proration coming in under expectations for 25% to 30% of tendered shares to be exchanged.

As a result, J&J shareholders will have 23.8% of their tendered shares exchanged, except for owners of fewer than 100 J&J shares or an "odd-lot" of shares, who won't be subject to the proration in accordance with the exchange offer's terms.

J&J will announce the final proration factor on Aug. 23 and return tendered but unexchanged stock back to shareholders after that time.

Once the exchange is completed, J&J will retain about 9.5% of Kenvue's outstanding shares.

Kenvue shares rose 1.8% to $23.28 in premarket trading. J&J shares slipped half a percentage point to $171.43.

Write to Dean Seal at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 21, 2023 07:36 ET (11:36 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.