The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[DewDiligence]

KFH makes $143B unsolicited offer for UL, which was rejected—at least for now:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/kraft-heinz-says-it-made-a-takeover-proposal-to-unilever-but-was-rejected-talks-continue-1487334065

In a statement Friday, Unilever said the proposal was for $50 a share, in a mix of $30.23 in cash payable in U.S. dollars and 0.222 share of the combined new company. It said that offer valued Unilever at about $143 billion.

Unilever said Kraft Heinz’s proposal represents a premium of 18% to its Thursday closing price, and that it fundamentally undervalues the firm.

Shares of Unilever rose 12.2% in London trading, giving the company a global market value of £111.9 billion ($139 billion) according to FactSet. Shares of Kraft Heinz rose 4.7% to $91.35 in premarket New York trading; at that level, it has a market value of about $111 billion.

According to British takeover rules, Kraft has until March 17 to announce a firm intention to make a specific offer, or walk away. Apart from persuading management and antitrust regulators around the world on the merits of a sale, the U.K. and Dutch governments will also likely weigh in. The offer comes ahead of an election in the Netherlands, where Unilever has deep roots. Neither government had publicly responded Friday on the news.

I've never owned UL, but I owned HNZ when it was a standalone company and did quite well with it.