Unilever to sell its food business?

Analysts at investment bank Liberum Capital said they expect Unilever to sell its food arm, excluding the ice cream and beverage category, for an estimated figure of €14bn.

Any such deal would be used to fund a large acquisition in its home and personal care businesses, according to a Liberum Capital report on why now is the right time to buy Unilever stock.

Authors Pablo Zuanic and Lisa Hau said: “We expect Unilever at some point to implement a large accretive acquisition in the HPC (household and personal care) space and to partly fund it by selling it’s the Food unit (excluding ice cream and beverages) which we estimate can be sold at about one times sales (or €14bn).

“Selling this lower growth component would improve the company’s growth profile but at the same time, a deal in HPC would likely increase the company’s franchise strength in the category (potential targets: parts of Clorox;Colgate;Beiersdorf;and or a cosmetics company).”