Procter & Gamble, the world’s largest consumer-products maker, agreed to sell portions of two soap brands to Unilever as chief executive officer A.G. Lafley works to slim down the company.
The sale, for an undisclosed amount, includes the Camay brand worldwide and the Zest brand outside of North American and the Caribbean, Cincinnati-based P&G said today in a statement. Unilever also will get a factory in Mexico that employs about 170 people.
P&G said earlier this year that it will sell as many as 100 product lines, accounting for about 10 per cent of its revenue, to focus on its main home- and personal-care businesses. The company already has agreed to sell its pet-food units and the Duracell battery brand in multibillion-dollar deals.
P&G rose 0.2 per cent to $92.27 at 12:08 p.m. in New York. The shares gained 13 per cent this year through last week. Unilever, based in London and Rotterdam, rose 0.9 per cent to €32.37 today in Amsterdam.
Bloomberg News, edited by ESM
