Procter & Gamble Co (NYSE:PG) has agreed to buy German Merck & Company Inc’s (NYSE:MRK, OTCPK:MKKGY) KGaA consumer health unit in a US$4.2bln deal.
The agreement will expand P&G’s line of consumer health care products, which already includes household names like Pampers and Tide. The acquisition of Merck’s vitamins and supplements will add brands like Femibion and Neurobion to the product line.
“We like the steady, broad-based growth of the OTC Health Care market and are pleased to add the Consumer Health portfolio and people of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, to the P&G family,” said CEO David Taylor in a press statement.
P&G will also split up its joint venture with Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd (NYSE:TEVA) as of July 1, saying that the companies were on different strategic paths and came to a mutual agreement to part ways.
Shares of P&G were down less than a percent in pre-market trading.
The Cincinnati-based company also announced better-than-expected fiscal third-quarter earnings on Thursday.