Skip to content
Search
AI Powered
Latest Stories

Activist investor Nelson Peltz joins Unilever board

Activist investor Nelson Peltz joins Unilever board
Nelson Peltz (Photo: Unilever)

Unilever on Tuesday announced the appointment of Nelson Peltz to its board as it engaged in talks about strategy with the billionaire American activist investor.

Peltz is chief executive and a founding partner of Trian Fund Management, an investment management firm that now holds a roughly 1.5 per cent stake in the consumer goods giant. The appointment is expected to take effect on 20 July.


He has previously served on the boards of several major global consumer goods companies, including Procter & Gamble Company, H.J. Heinz Company and Mondelēz International.

“We believe it is a company with significant potential, through leveraging its portfolio of strong consumer brands and its geographical footprint,” Peltz said.

“Trian has made a considerable investment in Unilever. We look forward to working collaboratively with management and the board to help drive Unilever’s strategy, operations, sustainability, and shareholder value for the benefit of all stakeholders.”

Nils Andersen, Chair of Unilever, added: “We have held extensive and constructive discussions with him and the Trian team and believe that Nelson’s experience in the global consumer goods industry will be of value to Unilever as we continue to drive the performance of our business.

“We look forward to working closely together to create long term sustainable value for our shareholders and wider stakeholders.”

According to a Reuters report, Peltz might soon bring the playbook that worked at Cincinnati-based P&G to Unilever’s London-based chief executive Alan Jope.

“It is not that Nelson Peltz has a deep grounding in soap, but he knows his way around complex companies,” the report quoted a Trian advisor as saying. “His team can work backwards from an income statement to understand what levers need to be pulled to make a company better.”

https://www.asiantrader.biz/activist-investor-expected-to-revive-pg-playbook-with-unilever/

At P&G, Trian criticised aging brands, a “suffocating bureaucracy,” short term thinking and sluggish shareholder returns. Many of the same problems exist at Unilever, where the share price has been roughly flat for years.

Earlier in January, Unilever shares rose 6 per cent on reports of Peltz, who often presents himself as a partner with constructive advice for companies, having acquired a stake.

Unilever has already taken some steps to cut costs by consolidating its headquarters in London and getting rid of some slower growing businesses like its Lipton tea brand. Thew business, which employs about 149,000 people worldwide, has also cut about 1,500 management jobs in a restructuring to create five product-focused divisions – a revamp that echoes P&G’s reshaping three years ago.

But analysts said there is more work ahead at Unilever, such as winning in the digital marketplace and solving for an insular culture in which many top executives, including the CEO, have worked for decades.

The half dozen people who have known how Trian operates said the firm has shaped itself into an operational activist that sticks around for many years to see the job through. It has previously taken stakes in Mondelez and Pepsico as well as General Electric, where it has been an investor since 2015.

More for you

Budget 2024: Local shops to face significant new pressure

(Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images)

(Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images)

Budget 2024: Local shops to face significant new pressure

Local shops will face significant new pressures as a result of today’s Budget, the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) has warned.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves' budget's impact will be felt unevenly across the UK’s 50,000 convenience stores, with some measures such as business rate relief and the increased employment allowance mitigating costs for smaller independent stores, while providing no help for chains and larger independent businesses.

Keep ReadingShow less
Post Office cash deposits and withdrawals
Post Office, DPD partners to rollout ‘Click and Collect’ services
Post Office, DPD partners to rollout ‘Click and Collect’ services

Parliament to launch inquiry into Post Office Horizon scandal compensation delays

Parliament is to launch an inquiry into delays in compensation settlements for sub postmasters affected by the Horizon scandal.

The newly-formed Business and Trade Select Committee will call ministers, subpostmasters and their lawyers to give evidence next week with a second session to follow in mid-November. The Committee’s chair, Liam Byrne MP told ITV News that there was “definitely a delay” in people coming forward for payment.

Keep ReadingShow less
Bacup Wine and Convenience shop, 34 Burnley Road, Bacup.

Bacup Wine and Convenience shop, 34 Burnley Road, Bacup.

Robbie MacDonald via LDRS

Shop’s licence bid rejected over illegal vapes and ‘no regard’ for children’s safety

A Rossendale shop has had a licence bid rejected after repeatedly selling vapes to children and having illegal products on its premises.

Management at the Ibra Superstore at 34 Burnley Road, Bacup, have shown ‘no regard’ for children’s protection and safety, and have insufficient controls for licensing, Rossendale councillors have ruled.

Keep ReadingShow less
SPAR retailer hits target to secure £100,000 free stock from James Hall

SPAR retailer hits target to secure £100,000 free stock from James Hall

SPAR North of England retailer Dara Singh Randhawa’s family store has been awarded £100,000 of free stock after hitting all his targets since moving to the symbol.

Dara and his family, who have their SPAR store in Patrington in the East Riding of Yorkshire, joined SPAR through its association with James Hall & Co. Ltd in August 2023 having taken the decision to maximise the store’s potential.

Keep ReadingShow less
Pound Sterling bank notes
iStock

National Living Wage to increase to £12.21 in April 2025

The government has on Wednesday announced its acceptance of the Low Pay Commission’s (LPC) recommendations on the rates of the National Minimum Wage (NMW), including the National Living Wage (NLW).

The rates which will apply from 1 April 2025 are as follows:

Keep ReadingShow less