Unilever may separately list its tea business on a stock exchange, but does not rule out an outright sale. Last year, the Maker of PG Tips and Lipton tea boarded on a review of its 3 billion euros a year global tea division, saying it was looking at options including a spinoff and partial or full sale, without setting a timeframe.
According to CEO of Unilever – Alan Jope – Unilever had started separating offices, manufacturing lines and people within its tea business, a process it expects to conclude by the end of this year and they will make a final decision at the end of that process, but expects to tap capital markets to split off the division.
Maybe now see the Unilever Tea Co becoming a separate business on a listed stock exchange with its own IPO, which is a highly likely outcome, which would have been very difficult under our old structure.Jope informed that as of now Unilever was open to talks with private-equity companies that may be interested in buying the tea business, but dismissed talk of the company looking to sell its Hellmann’s business, which had previously come under scrutiny for not adhering to his “brands with purpose” strategy.
Jope also laid out plans to return Unilever to faster growth, which included focusing on three big markets and making investments in high growth areas such as plant-based foods.
The company was looking to make plant-based food deals in China, India, and the United States, its fastest-growing markets.