By Dipo Olowookere
The unbundling of the tea business of Unilever Nigeria Plc is expected to be completed before the end of this year, the board has confirmed.
Unilever Nigeria produces the popular Lipton Tea and a few others, but this arm of the company is being proposed to operate as a standalone organisation.
In a notice to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) last week, Unilever Nigeria said the process was ongoing and at the end of it, the tea firm will operate as a separate legal entity.
Business Post recalls that in 2020, the global parent company of Unilever Nigeria announced its intention to restructure its tea arm, which is believed to generate over €3 billion annually.
It had also hinted that the new entity could be listed separately on the stock exchange, partially or totally sold to a new investor.
“You could easily see the Unilever Tea Co becoming a standalone business on a listed stock exchange with its own IPO, that is a highly likely outcome, which would have been very difficult under our old structure,” the CEO of Unilever, Mr Alan Jope, had informed Bloomberg in an interview.
In the latest update, the Nigerian subsidiary of the organisation disclosed that steps were already being taken to complete the divorce very soon.
“Further to the announcement made on August 5, 2020, about Unilever’s global announcement on the strategic review and planned separation of its tea business, this is to notify the Nigerian Stock Exchange and our esteemed shareholders of the plan to separate the Unilever Nigeria Plc tea business into a separate legal entity.
“The planned separation will go through the normal approval process and is expected to be concluded by the end of 2021.
“We shall keep the Nigerian Stock Exchange and stakeholders informed of subsequent developments on this matter,” the notice disclosed.
Share of Unilever Nigeria closed flat last Friday at the local stock exchange at N13.60 per unit. The equities dropped to that level last Monday and remained at that rate throughout the week.
Adedapo Adesanya