Unilever To Buy Sara Lee's Personal Care Unit
Unilever PLC (ULVR.LN) said Friday it will buy Sara Lee Corp.'s (SLE) Personal Care business for EUR1.28 billion in cash to strengthen its operations in Western Europe and Asia in the first M&A deal by the Anglo-Dutch consumer giant since its Chief Executive Paul Polman took the reins.
Unilever will add skin cleansing and deodorant brands such as Sanex, Radox and Duschdas to its stable of products such as Dove, Axe and Rexona. It also produces Ben & Jerry's ice cream, Dove soap, Lipton teas and Hellmann's mayo.
Polman, who took over as CEO in January, said in a statement "the Sara Lee brands enjoy strong consumer recognition, offer significant growth potential and are an excellent fit with Unilever's existing business." Polman is in the Far-East for work and wasn't available to comment further, a company spokesman said.
Unilever said there is "significant potential" to build the newly acquired brands in developing and emerging markets, which generate approximately 15% of Personal Care's annual sales for Sara Lee.
The Sara Lee brands generated annual sales of more than EUR750 million and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of EUR128 million for the financial year to the end of June, 2009.
Source : http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20090925-704049.html
Related searches:
unilever, radox, sanex, sara lee unilever, unilever sara lee
