UL: Unilever Wants $2B for Ragu Business

by Christopher Freeburn | March 3, 2014 12:09 pm

Unilever (NYSE:UL)[1]Sources tell Bloomberg that Unilever (UL[2]) has put its Ragu pasta sauce brand up for sale[3].

UL has reportedly retained Morgan Stanley (MS[4]) to advise it on the sale of Ragu, which is expected to bring UL between $1.5 billion and $2 billion. UL has reached out to a number of possible suitors for Ragu, including Kraft Foods (KRFT[5]), Berkshire Hathaway’s (BRK.A[6], BRK.B[7]) HJ Heinz and Pinnacle Foods (PF[8]).

Under CEO Paul Polman, UL has been moving to reduce its number of food brands. Last year, UL sold its Wish-Bone salad dressing business[9] to Pinnacle Foods for $580 million.

UL shares fell about 2% in Monday mid-day trading, in a market moving sharply downward due to rising international tensions over the crisis in Ukraine. UL stock has risen less than 2% over the past 12 months.

Endnotes:

  1. [Image]: https://investorplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/UnileverLogo.jpg
  2. UL: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=UL
  3. put its Ragu pasta sauce brand up for sale: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-03/unilever-said-to-seek-up-to-2-billion-for-ragu-sauce.html
  4. MS: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=MS
  5. KRFT: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=KRFT
  6. BRK.A: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=BRK.A
  7. BRK.B: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=BRK.B
  8. PF: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=PF
  9. sold its Wish-Bone salad dressing business: https://investorplace.com/2013/08/pinnacle-foods-to-buy-wish-bone-for-580m/#.UxS23txhOf0

Source URL: https://investorplace.com/2014/03/ul-unilever-wants-2b-ragu-business/