MEET THE PARENTS: Nelson Peltz, the activist investor who’s widely reported to be building up a stake in the embattled Unilever, is none other than Brooklyn Beckham’s future father-in-law.
Peltz is the billionaire founder and chief executive officer of Trian Fund Management, an activist hedge fund, and his reported investment gave Unilever’s share price a much-needed boost on the London Stock Exchange earlier this week.
The corporate giant, owner of brands ranging from Hellmann’s and Ben & Jerry’s to Dove and Dermalogica, has had a tough 10 days following a failed series of bids for GlaxoSmithKline’s Consumer Health business; shareholder anger about the proposed takeover; and a collapse in its share price. Earlier this week Unilever unveiled a major organizational and management restructuring in an effort to calm market nerves about the direction in which the company is headed.
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The markets applauded Peltz’s moves, with the share price rising 6 percent on Monday after many news outlets reported on Trian’s investment. Trian and Unilever have both declined to comment, and have not confirmed the investment.
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The shares have settled down slightly since then and are currently trading at 38.37 pounds, down around 3.3 percent over the past month.
This isn’t the first time that Peltz, whose daughter Nicola, an actress and director, is set to marry Beckham later this year, has swooped on a consumer giant, or a major beauty company.
Peltz served on the board of Procter & Gamble from 2018 until August 2021, working alongside the CEO, and management and ultimately improving the conglomerate’s fortunes. According to some media reports, Peltz and his team could easily take a similar approach at Unilever.
Jefferies said in a report this week that Trian’s investment is likely to be “materially positive” for the Unilever shares as the fund has proven over time to be “notably well-informed analysts of their portfolio companies and ‘constructivist’ in approach.”
The bank said that Trian is likely to push Unilever to make some quick brand disposals in the slow-growing foods business, or split the food and personal care divisions altogether, via a sale or a spin-off.
Both moves — not to mention having an activist investor breathing down management’s back — would pile even more pressure on Unilever’s CEO Alan Jope, who was ultimately responsible for the fumbled GSK bid.
All of these changes will likely unfurl as Peltz gets ready to walk Nicola down the aisle in her Valentino wedding dress designed by Pierpaolo Piccioli.
The wedding has been a long time coming. The couple revealed their engagement in 2020, and have been working on projects together in the meantime.
As reported, they appeared alongside one another in Pepe Jeans’ “Just Us” fall campaign, which shows the loved-up couple smooching and clowning around, and wearing denim and eco-leather pieces.
Nicola, whose mother is Claudia Heffner Peltz, a former model, is best known for her roles in “Transformers: Age of Extinction” and the TV series “Bates Motel.” She stars in, and directs, the upcoming film “Lola James.”
The Peltzes and the Beckhams certainly have a lot to talk about, including life in the limelight and, of course, the beauty business.
With Peltz presumably ready to roll up his sleeves and scrutinize the likes of Dove, Pond’s and Olly chewable gummy vitamins, he can most certainly consult Brooklyn’s mother about Victoria Beckham Beauty, and father David about his Coty, Inc. fragrance deals and House 99, Beckham’s grooming brand with L’Oréal. And a new beauty dynasty is born.