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Unilever Snuggles with Vestar
$1.45 billion deal will bring together Unilever’s laundry branch and Huish Detergents, a Vestar portfolio boost.
July 28, 2008
Unilever will jettison its laundry assets, in the form of Wisk, Surf, Sunlight and Snuggle—who could forget the high-pitched intonations of quarter-century old Snuggle Bear on television ads?—to private equity firm Vestar Capital Partners.
The products will be tucked into Huish Detergents, a company in which Vestar has majority share, to create the Sun Products Corp. Under the terms of the deal, Unilever will get about $375 million in Sun Products Corp. shares, warrants to buy more and a cash payment of more than $1.07 billion.
Neil DeFeo, currently a Huish director, will become chief executive of the new company.
“Uniting this company with the strong heritage of the Unilever business will create one of the most compelling product lineups in the market,” DeFeo said. “This will allow us to serve the needs of our retail customers and consumers better, while at the same time providing significant career opportunities for associates across the organizations.”
Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP advised Unilever on the transaction; its banker was Morgan Stanley.
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