Dettol and Durex Owner Reckitt Signals £1.6 billion Capital Return to Shareholders

Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC, the company behind global brands such as Dettol, Lysol, Durex, Finish, Nurofen, and Enfamil, has a diversified brand base that supports resilient and recurring cash generation and is preparing to deliver a meaningful capital return to shareholders.

Strategic Shift and Simplification

This planned return follows the completion of a significant strategic transaction at the end of 2025, which reshaped the group’s operating structure. By separating its Essential Home business, Reckitt has streamlined its operations while retaining a minority economic interest, allowing management to sharpen its focus on higher-growth, higher-margin categories within consumer health and hygiene.

Special Dividend and Share Consolidation

As part of this transaction, the company intends to distribute approximately £1.6 billion through a special cash dividend, as well as perform a share consolidation. The proposed return reflects excess capital unlocked from the transaction.

A special dividend is a one-time cash payment made to shareholders when a company has extra capital that it does not need for its business. A share consolidation (also called a reverse stock split) reduces the number of shares in circulation by combining existing shares into fewer, higher-value shares, while keeping the total value of each shareholder’s investment the same.

When it comes to the special dividends, shareholders are expected to receive £2.35 per share. In terms of the share consolidation, the ratio is 24-for-25 or simply put, for each share an investor owns, they will receive 0.96 shares.

Salient dates 

• Last trading date – 30 January 2026
• Share consolidation effective date – 02 February 2026
• Payment date – 20 February 2026

Ongoing Shareholder Returns

Notably, the company added that the special distribution complements Reckitt’s existing capital return framework. The group continues to execute its share buyback programme alongside its ordinary dividend policy.

Reflecting on the strategic progress, the CEO said, “The completion of the divestment of Essential Home is a major step forward in our strategy, moving Reckitt towards becoming a simpler, more effective world-class consumer health and hygiene company focused on a core portfolio of high-growth, high-margin Powerbrands.” With a clearer strategic focus and capital being returned to investors, Reckitt moves into its next phase with enhanced financial flexibility.

Government bonds offer a reliable way to earn fixed income by lending money to the government in exchange for regular interest payments. 

Dividends are one of the many key components of investing, representing a share of a company's profits distributed to its shareholders. 

Special dividends, also known as extraordinary dividends, are one-time payments made by companies to shareholders due to specific financial events, like windfall profits or asset sales.