Rumours on P&G-Unilever takeover offer make waves

“As sceptics quickly said that anti-trust authorities would not take kindly to such a deal,they heard whispers that P&G has apparently already lined up buyers for parts of Unilever it does not want or would have to sell to placate competition authorities,” it noted. Both P&G and Unilever have significant presence in the fast-growing Indian FMCG market.

The publication said that P&G’s last major corporate deal was the 1.4 billion sale of its Pringles crisps business to Diamond Foods.

“Unilever’s last big purchase was the 2.3 billion acquisition of Alberto Culver,the company behind the likes of VO5,Tresemme and Simple,” the report added.

Rumours were rife earlier in the year that Unilever — whose brands include Lipton tea,Vaseline,Lux and Domestos — was about to launch a £34 billion bid for Colgate. That would help double its sales from £40 billion to £80 billion and help accelerate the portfolio shift to personal care,consolidate its emerging markets strength and provide scale in the US.

“Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble,makers of dozens of household staples including Pampers nappies and Fairy washing liquid,is therefore keen to pounce on Unilever before its chief executive Paul Polman can splash any more cash,” the UK paper said.

Meanwhile,both Hindustan Unilever — the Indian arm of Unilever of the UK — and Procter & Gamble closed marginally lower on Indian stock exchanges on Friday. HUL which shot up on Thursday closed 0.81 per cent lower at Rs 318.30,P&G closed ended 0.21 per cent down at Rs 2,000 on the Bombay Stock Exchange.