Galapagos jumps after it walks back on spinoff, appoints new CEO

** Shares in Galapagos GLPG.AS jump as much as 7% after it backtracked on a plan to split into two listed entities and appointed Henry Gosebruch as its new CEO

** Galapagos had said in January it would provide around 2.45 billion euros ($2.72 billion) of cash for the new entity

** "We look forward to Gosebruch's plans for the future direction of the company as well as how the terms of the original OLCA agreement will be renegotiated," Kempen analysts say, upgrading the stock to "buy" from "neutral"

** "Given that Goseburch has now €3.3b in cash to employ for transactions and will likely divest the CAR T business, we view the current valuation (55% below cash) as attractive"

** The Amsterdam-listed stock is up 6.4% at 0712 GMT

** If gains hold, it will see its best day since October 7

($1 = 0.8998 euros)