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US/Germany: P&G buys Merck health brands for $4.2B

By  |  April 19, 2018

Procter & Gamble (P&G) has agreed to buy the consumer health business of German drugmaker Merck for €3.4billion (US$4.2 billion), as the US group struggles to ignite sales of its household brands.

The acquisition will give P&G, which owns a wealth of brand names from Pampers diapers to Gillette razors, control of vitamin makers including Seven Seas and Neurobion, which are faster-growing than P&G’s household products.

David Taylor, chief executive of P&G, said the over-the-counter healthcare business would offer “steady, broad-based growth.”

The deal was announced on the same day that the company unveiled another quarter of anemic sales growth and shrinking profit margins as it grapples with discounting from retailers and declining pricing power for its decades-old brands. `

Full Content: Bloomberg

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