Unilever completes sale negotiations with Bird's Eye Iglo
Uniliver sells Findus for 805m euros
19 July 2010
Bird's Eye Iglo has acquired Unilever's Italian frozen-food
business after rounds of sales negotiations.
The deal for Findus, worth 805 million euros (£683 million),
will see a total of 650 office and factory staff transferred to
Bird's Eye as part of the agreement.
James Hill, chairman of Unilever Italy, said: "With this deal,
Unilever is now in a stronger position to focus on its core
categories outside frozen foods and to achieve long-term growth in
the Italian market."
The Italian frozen food company will be merged with the rest of
Bird's Eye which Permira, the private equity group, bought from
Unilever four years ago for 1.7 billion euros. Uniliver held on to
the Italian unit as part of the deal.
Findus is a profitable firm and reported sales of 462 million
euros in 2009.
Unilever hired Goldman Sachs to be their mergers and acquisition
advisors throughout the negotiations.