Henkel has announced plans to buy French household cleaner maker Spotless for €940 million cash, its second purchase in a week as the German consumer goods company builds its presence in large, profitable, mature markets.
Henkel is buying Spotless from London-based private equity firm BC Partners, adding Eau Ecarlate and Dylon laundry products to a portfolio that already includes Persil detergent, Loctite adhesives and Schwarzkopf hair products.
Spotless will give it leading positions in established markets like France, Italy and Britain where home and personal care products enjoy relatively fat profit margins, Henkel said.
Henkel's latest acquisition follows a €270 million deal on Monday, to buy three US hair care brands. Both purchases are being funded by a €4 billion war chest the company has been building over several quarters for acquisitions.
Henkel had been shopping for takeover targets for well over a year as a way to stay competitive in a consolidating consumer goods market increasingly fuelled by emerging markets. By 2016 it aims to have €20 billion in sales, up from €16.4 billion in 2013, with half of that coming from emerging markets.
“We are very encouraged to see Henkel accelerating the pace of acquisitions as of 2014 and believe it could continue,” Paris-based Raymond James analyst Hermine de Bentzmann, who rates Henkel outperform, said in a note to clients. “The group has room to leverage these new brands rapidly both locally and also internationally.”
© 2014 - European Supermarket Magazine by Enda Dowling
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