Kenvue

Kenvue Inc. is an American consumer health company. Formerly the Consumer Healthcare division of Johnson & Johnson, Kenvue is the proprietor of well-known brands such as Aveeno, Band-Aid, Benadryl, Zyrtec, Johnson's, Listerine, Mylanta, Neutrogena, Trosyd, Tylenol, and Visine.

Kenvue is headquartered in the Skillman section of Montgomery Township, New Jersey, with plans to relocate its global headquarters to Summit, New Jersey. Before the spin-off, Johnson & Johnson's consumer health division was based in Skillman, even as its pharmaceutical division and medical technologies division, as well as the overall company headquarters, were located in nearby New Brunswick, New Jersey.

History

Spin-off and IPO

On November 12, 2021, Johnson & Johnson announced that it would spin off its consumer health division as a separate company, in an effort to streamline operations. The new company would assume well-known consumer brands such as Aveeno, Band-Aid, Neutrogena, and Tylenol, while Johnson & Johnson would focus on its pharmaceutical and medical device sectors. CEO Alex Gorsky said that the split was in response to "a significant evolution in these markets, particularly on the consumer side", and would enable faster expansion for both businesses.

Other pharmaceutical companies that made similar moves around this time include Merck & Co., which sold its consumer health business to Bayer in 2014, and Pfizer, which merged its consumer health division with that of GSK plc in 2019. The November 2021 announcement also occurred the same week that General Electric and Toshiba each announced that they would split into multiple entities.

The New York Times noted that Johnson & Johnson had long benefited from a "halo effect", namely a lingering positive connotation ascribed to the company name stemming from its popular household brands such as Johnson's Baby, but that its reputation had declined as a result of various controversies in recent years; Johnson & Johnson was the subject of litigation over its role in the opioid epidemic in the United States, as well as over allegations that its talc-based baby powder contained asbestos and caused ovarian cancer for some consumers. The spin-off was seen as an effort to move past these controversies and assuage shareholder apprehension.

The Times also pointed out that, while the consumer health business operates many well-known brands, it was not nearly as lucrative as the pharmaceutical and medical device sectors (taking $15 billion in revenue in 2021 compared to the latter's combined $77 billion), commenting that the popularity of the consumer brands "does not do much to advance Johnson & Johnson's medical businesses, which are far more important to the company's finances".

On February 23, 2022, the consumer health business was registered as a corporation in Delaware, under the provisional name JNTL, Inc. On September 28, 2022, Johnson & Johnson unveiled that the new consumer health company would be called Kenvue. They said that the name was a combination of "ken", a Scottish English word for 'knowledge', and "vue", a homophone of "view" intended to evoke the concept of 'sight'.

Kenvue filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering (IPO) in 2023. Kenvue issued about 1.89 billion shares, of which about 170 million were offered at the IPO. This meant that Johnson & Johnson retained about 90.9% of the shares after the IPO.

The IPO took place on May 4, 2023. Shares of Kenvue were priced at $22, implying an initial equity valuation for Kenvue of about $41 billion, and traded at $26.90 at the end of the first trading day. Raising about $3.8 billion in capital for Kenvue, it was the largest IPO since the IPO of Rivian on November 10, 2021. The IPO was seen as a useful gauge of broader investor confidence. Observers cited rising interest rates and predictions of a looming recession to explain the slowdown in the U.S. IPO market since 2022, and said that Kenvue was an "idiosyncratic" IPO candidate as it was well-established, with an extensive track record of profitable years under its parent company.

On July 24, 2023, Johnson & Johnson launched an exchange offer to split-off Kenvue. Kenvue was added to the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats index in August 2023.

Independent operation

The first CEO of Kenvue is Thibaut Mongon.

Brands

Consumer brands operated by Kenvue include:

• Aveeno
• Band-Aid
• Benadryl
• Benylin
• Clean & Clear
• Imodium
• Johnson's Baby
• Listerine
• Lubriderm
• Motrin
• Mylanta
• Neosporin
• Neutrogena
• Pepcid
• Rogaine
• Sudafed
• Trosyd
• Tylenol
• Visine
• Zyrtec

Controversy

A securities class action was initiated in the United States District Court of New Jersey by law firm Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP on 9 October 2023. The action alleged that Kenvue was in violation of federal securities laws - having made fraudulent and misleading statements, including omissions, about the company's internal control and financial reporting. This was specifically in relation to Kenvue's Registration Statement which is said not to have disclosed information pertaining to possible risks and potential litigation regarding phenylephrine, its uses and efficacy. As a result, investors were informed of the lawsuit and noted significant losses. Kenvue shares closed at 9.6% below the IPO price, at $19.87.

Kenvue total number of employees in 2022 was 22,200, a 11% increase from 2021.

Notes

References

External links

• Official website
• Business data for Kenvue Inc.: