GlaxoSmithKline PLC (LSE:GSK) is to sell its iconic London HQ and will move staff to new offices in Surrey as its presses ahead with the split of its consumer and pharmaceutical arms.
The GlaxoSmithKline sign at the top of its HQ in Brentford is the first indication for Heathrow passengers arriving via the M4 that they are in London.
The pharma giant confirmed today, though, that around 800 consumer division staff will move from GSK House to a new £120mln site on a science park in Weybridge.
Some 3,500 pharma and vaccine staff will stay at Brentford until 2023 when new premises for the demerged division should have been found, also around Weybridge, according to reports.
GSK House was opened by then PM Tony Blair in 2002 after the merger of SmithKline Beecham and GlaxoWellcome.
A spokesperson told Reuters said it was too spacious to house either of the two successor companies.
GSK’s announcement comes just days after a private meeting between the company and major investors where chief executive Emma Walmsley’s role was again questioned by activist investor Elliott Management.
Walmsley is to head the new pharma arm, but her scientific credentials have repeatedly been challenged by Elliott, which unusually was represented at the virtual meeting by Gordon Singer, the head of its London office and son of its founder.
Elliott and another activist investor in GSK, BlueBell, have called for the consumer division to be sold rather than spun off and the proceeds reinvested in the pharma business.