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On 14 August I looked at former FTSE 100 darling Reckitt (LSE: RKT) and cruelly declared I wouldn’t touch it with a bargepole.
I’ve been monitoring the consumer goods giant for years, because it has much to recommend it. Its brands are a rollcall of hygiene, health and nutrition household names including Air Wick, Calgon, Cillit Bang, Finish, Harpic, Nurofen, Vanish and many more.
Reckitt may be based in humble Slough but it sells its products in nearly every country in the world. Investors saw it as a solid defensive stock, with a reliable dividend and growth potential in the good times. Then its share price crashed by a third in just two years.
The share price has taken a beating
The reason? Legal issues in the US, a perennial problem for UK multinationals.
Reckitt’s ill-fated $16.6bn takeover of US-listed baby milk formula maker Mead Johnson Nutrition in 2017 lay…
