J&J consumer health subsidiary goes public, shares jump 22 percent

Kenvue, the consumer health subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson (J&J), has gone public after announcing plans of its “upsized” initial public offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) last week.

The firm’s common stock aimed to initially come in at 22 dollars per share under the symbol KVUE, however closed at 26.90 dollars after opening at 25.53 dollars.

On its first day of trading, Kenvue’s shares jumped 22 percent. While the company had set out to sell 151 million shares, it ended up selling 172.8 million shares in the offer, raising 3.8 billion dollars and snapping up a valuation of around 41 billion dollars.

The IPO was expected to close May 8, subject to the satisfaction or waiver of customary closing conditions, after which J&J said it would own over 1.7 billion shares of the company’s common stock, representing 90.9 percent of its total outstanding shares.

Kenvue operates a number of J&J’s notable consumer health brands, including Aveeno, Neutrogena and Listerine and is already considered a profitable part of the business.

For 2022, the firm reported 14.95 billion dollars in sales, with a net income of 1.46 billion dollars according to its SEC filings.