Kimberly-Clark To Pursue Potential Tax-free Spin-off Of Health Care Unit

(RTTNews) - Kimberly-Clark Corp. (KMB) announced that its board of directors has authorized management to pursue a potential tax-free spin-off of the company's health care business.

The company noted that a spin-off would create a stand-alone, publicly traded health care company with about $1.6 billion in annual net sales and leading market positions in both surgical and infection prevention products and medical devices.

The company said its management will continue to analyze a potential spin-off and expects to make a final recommendation to the board of directors in the next several months. If the board approves a spin-off, a transaction would likely be completed by the end of the third quarter of 2014, subject to market, regulatory and other conditions. The company expects that the spin-off would be in the form of a tax-free distribution of 100 percent of the new company's common stock to Kimberly-Clark shareholders. Morgan Stanley has been retained to assist Kimberly-Clark in the pursuit of the spin-off.