LONDON – The European Commission has approved Unilever’s acquisition of Sara Lee’s personal care and European laundry business.
The green light follows Unilever’s undertaking to divest of the Sanex body care brand, previously owned by Sara Lee, in the European market. The commission had been examining competition concerns raised by Unilever’s acquisition of the Sara Lee brands, which will see Unilever own brands including Radox, Duschdas and Neutral.
The commission said in a statement that it had found the merger would give Unilever a strong leadership in deodorants markets by owning the brands Sanex, Dove and Rexona, which the commission said “presently compete against each other.”
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“We had to ensure that the transaction would not lead to increased prices for consumers,” said Joaquín Almunia, commission vice president in charge of competition policy. “As Unilever offered a strong and clear-cut remedy to address the competition concerns in a number of deodorant markets, the commission was able to clear the merger.”
Unilever will continue to operate the Sanex brand in a small number of markets outside the European Union.
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Unilever said it will complete the transaction this year. The Anglo-Dutch company will pay 1.2 billion euros, or $1.63 billion at current exchange in cash for the Sara Lee personal care and European laundry business, which generated annual sales in excess of 750 million euros, or $1.02 billion, in the year ending June 2009.
Doug Baillie, president of Western Europe for Unilever said: “We are pleased to have received the green light from the European Commission for this deal, and we look forward to adding these important brands to our business,” stated Baillie. “We are acquiring a number of brands that fill gaps in our portfolio [and] improve the shape of our overall European portfolio while offering significant potential for development in other geographies.”