ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 15, 1996 TAG: 9602150080
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ROTTERDAM, NETHERLANDS
SOURCE: Bloomberg Business News
Unilever NV said Wednesday that it will buy Helene Curtis Industries Inc. for $915 million, adding shampoos and deodorants to its worldwide assortment of soaps and skin-care products.
Unilever, the world's largest maker of personal-care goods and parent of Elizabeth Arden Co. of Roanoke, will pay $70 a share in cash and take on $145 million in debt for the maker of Suave and Finesse shampoos and Degree deodorant.
Those brands will help the Anglo-Dutch maker of Dove soap, Q-tips, and Ponds and Vaseline creams as it battles Procter & Gamble Co. for sales around the world.
``Under Unilever, these brands can grow more rapidly,'' said analyst Diana Temple of Salomon Brothers Inc. ``Unilever has a good deal of skin-care technology that could develop Suave into a global skin-care brand.''
Shares in Chicago-based Helene Curtis rose $10.371/2, or 18 percent, to $69.371/2 on trading of 2.2 million shares Wednesday. Unilever's American depositary receipts fell $1871/2 to $143.121/2.
Helene Curtis had sales of $1.27 billion in fiscal 1995, two-thirds in the United States.
Unilever's U.S. sales accounted for $9 billion of its $45 billion sales in 1994.
Ronald Gidwitz said he will remain Helene Curtis' president and chief executive, and that its headquarters, manufacturing and research facilities will remain intact.
Unilever's last sizable U.S. purchase in the personal-care market was in 1989, when it bought such well-known brands as Calvin Klein, Elizabeth Arden and Faberge for $1.86 billion.
A tender offer for Helene Curtis' 11 million shares outstanding will begin Tuesday. The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of March.
LENGTH: Short : 43 linesby CNB