Premier Foods sells off can division to Princes February 8, 2011 PREMIER Foods yesterday said that it sold its canned grocery division –?including the brands Crosse & Blackwell and Fray Bentos – to rival Princes. The £182m deal is aimed at cutting Premier’s debt and is the second disposal in less than a month after the company sold its Quorn business for £205m. Premier said it [...]
The knock-on cost of pricey commodities February 27, 2011 Inflation is the word on everyone’s lips at the moment. RPI inflation – the measure that best reflects the true rise in the cost of living in the UK – is now at 5.1 per cent a year as producers raise prices to protect their profits. But even the biggest brand owners are struggling to [...]
Birds Eye and Findus in battle for Unilever arm July 4, 2010 FISH finger maker Birds Eye Iglo is set to go head to head with crispy pancake makers Findus Group in the final round of bidding for Unilever’s Italian frozen food arm. The Italian division was put on sale earlier this year, and final bids are due tomorrow. The final competition is thought to be between [...]
Birds Eye and Findus in battle for Unilever arm July 4, 2010 FISH finger maker Birds Eye Iglo is set to go head to head with crispy pancake makers Findus Group in the final round of bidding for Unilever’s Italian frozen food arm. The Italian division was put on sale earlier this year, and final bids are due tomorrow. The final competition is thought to be between [...]
Don’t blindly follow the herds into the big cap funds March 2, 2011 DESPITE large-cap funds having underperformed against their small to mid-cap alternatives in recent years (see chart), figures would suggest that this year could see large-cap funds turn the tables. “We have certainly seen a lot more interest in equities, away from bonds and gilts,” said Andy Simpson at Schroders Asset Management, “though not as attractive [...]
FTSE held back by blue-chips and miners February 9, 2011 London trading was weighed down by falls in major stocks trading ex-dividend, outweighing strong performances by financial stocks. The FTSE 100 closed down 0.64 per cent or 30.04 points at 6,052.29, as BP, GlaxoSmithKline, International Power, Royal Dutch Shell, Sage Group and Unilever all lost their payout attractions. “After Tuesday’s leap to multi-year highs, a [...]
Regulators to look again at Unilever deal June 1, 2010 EUROPEAN Union regulators yesterday extended their probe of Unilever’s bid for Sara Lee Corp’s body care business after the Anglo-Dutch company refused to offer concessions to address competition concerns. European Union watchdogs have said they will need to carefully scrutinise the deal to buy Sara Lee’s personal care business as they fear it could give [...]
Unilever hit by buyback revolt May 10, 2010 THREE major Unilever shareholders will vote against proposals to buy back €155m (£133m) of preference shares in a move that could scupper the move. Anglo-Dutch consumer giant Unilever has proposed to cancel the four per cent Unilever cumulative preference shares and to seek authorisation to buy back its six per cent and seven per cent [...]
This purchase makes financial sense September 27, 2010 INVESTORS should keep their hair on. Financially, this deal makes sense. Unilever’s $37.5bn-a-share offer, which values Alberto Culver at around $3.6bn, is good value. The offer, which is worth around 12 times prospective earnings for 2011, is pretty cheap when compared to similar deals. Which is just as well, because the deal – while sensible [...]
L’Oréal may launch rival Culver bid September 28, 2010 UNILEVER could find itself embroiled in a multi-billion dollar bidding war for hair care specialist Alberto Culver. Analysts were yesterday bracing themselves for a rival bid for the firm, with L’Oreal said to be the most likely candidate. German consumer goods giant Henkel is also thought to be considering its position. JP Morgan analyst John [...]