Kenvue CEO Thibault Mongon prepares for an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange on May 4, 2023.
Source: New York Stock Exchange
Activist investor Starboard Value owns a large stake. KenviewThe company will separate from Johnson & Johnson in mid-2023, according to people familiar with the matter.
Activists are seeking an improvement in the company’s stock price, said the people, who requested anonymity to discuss private information freely. CNBC was unable to learn the investment amount or Starboard’s specific plans. Starboard’s Jeff Smith will discuss the activists’ plans for the company in detail at 13D Monitor’s Active Passive Investor Summit on Tuesday.
The stock rose about 8% in premarket trading on Monday following the news, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Kenvue is the maker of iconic brands well known to investors and the general public, including Aveeno, Band-Aid, Listerine, Neutrogena, Tylenol, and J&J’s namesake baby powder and shampoo.
Starboard’s move into Kenview comes just two weeks after news broke that the company had acquired about $1 billion in stock in struggling pharmaceutical company Pfizer.
johnson & johnson completed its separation from Kenvue last August, but the pharmaceutical giant still owns a stake in the new company. This was the biggest change in J&J’s approximately 140-year history.
J&J announced the separation at the end of 2021 with the aim of streamlining its operations and refocusing on its pharmaceutical and medical device segments.
