The Lemon Fool

Lootman wrote:

Dod101 wrote: I would have thought fundamental particularly for a bid as big as this was is the need to get shareholders on side beforehand.

Shareholders are asked to approve any accepted bid. But I have not seen a company ask shareholders' permission to make a bid. In fact publicising the intention to make a bid would have the effect of moving the target's price against you.

Aren't these moves usually done discreetly for exactly that reason?

Having sold Unilever last summer I bought back in last week and am pleased to see I am up 12% on the deal. That is the equivalent of three year's worth of dividends in just a few days. The question now is do I grab the profit and run?

BullDog wrote:
Very well done. You know, in your shoes I think I would the money and run.

Lootman wrote:

Dod101 wrote: I would have thought fundamental particularly for a bid as big as this was is the need to get shareholders on side beforehand.

Shareholders are asked to approve any accepted bid. But I have not seen a company ask shareholders' permission to make a bid. In fact publicising the intention to make a bid would have the effect of moving the target's price against you.

Aren't these moves usually done discreetly for exactly that reason?

Having sold Unilever last summer I bought back in last week and am pleased to see I am up 12% on the deal. That is the equivalent of three year's worth of dividends in just a few days. The question now is do I grab the profit and run?

The size of Trian’s stake is not known but in the past the hedge fund has taken positions of 1%-3.5% in target companies.

Unilever Plc (NYSE:UL) is said to plan to eliminate thousands of management positions as a way to speed up decision making at the consumer-goods company.
The cuts, potentially in the low thousands, are targeted at numerous regional and divisional roles at the company, according to a Bloomberg report.
News of the job cuts comes after a FT report that activist hedge fund Trian Partners has a stake in Unilever. The size of the stake or when Trian began building it wasn't known. Unilever shares gained 7% on the report.

Unilever simplifies organisation

London, 25 January 2022 . Unilever today announced changes to its organisational model to make it a simpler, more category-focused business.

The company will move away from its current matrix structure and will be organised around five distinct Business Groups: Beauty & Wellbeing, Personal Care, Home Care, Nutrition, and Ice Cream. Each Business Group will be fully responsible and accountable for their strategy, growth, and profit delivery globally.

Alan Jope, CEO Unilever, explains, "Our new organisational model has been developed over the last year and is designed to continue the step-up we are seeing in the performance of our business. Moving to five category-focused Business Groups will enable us to be more responsive to consumer and channel trends, with crystal-clear accountability for delivery. Growth remains our top priority and these changes will underpin our pursuit of this."

The proposed new organisation model will result in a reduction in senior management roles of around 15% and more junior management roles by 5%, equivalent to around 1,500 roles globally. Changes will be subject to consultation. We do not expect factory teams to be impacted by these changes.

All costs related to setting up the new organisation will be managed within existing restructuring investment plans.

daveh wrote:and from the horses mouth:
https://www.investegate.co.uk/unilever- ... 00025509Z/

Unilever simplifies organisation

London, 25 January 2022 . Unilever today announced changes to its organisational model to make it a simpler, more category-focused business.

The company will move away from its current matrix structure and will be organised around five distinct Business Groups: Beauty & Wellbeing, Personal Care, Home Care, Nutrition, and Ice Cream. Each Business Group will be fully responsible and accountable for their strategy, growth, and profit delivery globally.

Alan Jope, CEO Unilever, explains, "Our new organisational model has been developed over the last year and is designed to continue the step-up we are seeing in the performance of our business. Moving to five category-focused Business Groups will enable us to be more responsive to consumer and channel trends, with crystal-clear accountability for delivery. Growth remains our top priority and these changes will underpin our pursuit of this."

The proposed new organisation model will result in a reduction in senior management roles of around 15% and more junior management roles by 5%, equivalent to around 1,500 roles globally. Changes will be subject to consultation. We do not expect factory teams to be impacted by these changes.

All costs related to setting up the new organisation will be managed within existing restructuring investment plans.

daveh wrote:and from the horses mouth:
https://www.investegate.co.uk/unilever- ... 00025509Z/

Unilever simplifies organisation

.... "Our new organisational model has been developed over the last year and is designed to continue the step-up we are seeing in the performance of our business. Moving to five category-focused Business Groups....

idpickering wrote:Unilever is said to plan to cut thousands of jobs amid report of Trian stake.

Unilever Plc (NYSE:UL) is said to plan to eliminate thousands of management positions as a way to speed up decision making at the consumer-goods company.
The cuts, potentially in the low thousands, are targeted at numerous regional and divisional roles at the company, according to a Bloomberg report.
News of the job cuts comes after a FT report that activist hedge fund Trian Partners has a stake in Unilever. The size of the stake or when Trian began building it wasn't known. Unilever shares gained 7% on the report.

https://seekingalpha.com/news/3790818-u ... eltz-stake

77ss wrote:This kind of organisational structure may lend itself more readily to divestments/spin-offs etc.

absolutezero wrote:

77ss wrote:This kind of organisational structure may lend itself more readily to divestments/spin-offs etc.

Hopefully the ice cream section. The political antics of Ben and Jerry, make ULVR pretty much uninvestable.
I did note one of the Sunday papers had a feature saying the B&J is practically unsellable - for that very reason.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/01/23/unilever-may-unable-offload-ice-cream-lawyers-warn/

SalvorHardin wrote:An alternative if no-one was interested in buying it would be to shut it down. Salt the earth and all that. Treat it like Carthage. This would probably require most of the board of Unilever to be sacked.

bluedonkey wrote:I didn't realise that Ben & Jerry ice cream was anti-semitic.

bluedonkey wrote:I didn't realise that Ben & Jerry ice cream was anti-semitic.

Dod101 wrote:

bluedonkey wrote:I didn't realise that Ben & Jerry ice cream was anti-semitic.

It is not the ice cream that is anti semitic; it would seem though that the Directors of the company are.

Dod

bluedonkey wrote:

Dod101 wrote:

bluedonkey wrote:I didn't realise that Ben & Jerry ice cream was anti-semitic.

It is not the ice cream that is anti semitic; it would seem though that the Directors of the company are.

Dod

Are the directors anti-semitic or instead anti-Israel?

Dod101 wrote:

bluedonkey wrote:

Dod101 wrote:

bluedonkey wrote:I didn't realise that Ben & Jerry ice cream was anti-semitic.

It is not the ice cream that is anti semitic; it would seem though that the Directors of the company are.

Dod

Are the directors anti-semitic or instead anti-Israel?

I do not know but as SH says they are refusing to sell their wares in the West Bank. The important bit is that although Unilever owns this company, for some reason when they bought it they accepted that the Board of Tom & Jerry's would remain autonomous and Unilever can do nothing about it.

Dod