Founding Member becomes the world’s leading company in hair conditioning

Unilever PLC, the Anglo-Dutch consumer-products giant, said Monday it has reached an agreement to purchase Alberto Culver Co., maker of Alberto VO5 hair-care products, for $3.7 billion.

Unilever will back $37.50 a share in cash for Alberto Culver, a 19% premium to its Friday closing price of $31.48.

Unilever said in a statement that the acquisition makes it the world’s leading company in hair conditioning, the second largest in shampoo and the third largest in styling. Officials of Alberto Culver, based in Melrose Park, Ill., couldn’t immediately be reached.

Alberto Culver’s portfolio includes a number of well-known hair-care brands, such as TRESemme and Nexxus, in addition to Alberto VO5, and skin-care products such as St. Ives and Noxzema. The company, part owned by the family of founder Leonard Lavin, and which dates its roots back more than 50 years, had sales of $1.4 billion for the fiscal year ended in September 2009.

The deal comes almost exactly a year after Unilever announced its purchase of Sara Lee Corp.’s personal-care business for €1.275 billion ($1.72 billion) in cash. That deal, which hasn’t closed yet due to regulatory hurdles in Europe, would round out Unilever’s personal-care portfolio by adding the cheaper Radox and Sanex brands to higher-end brands like Dove and Vaseline. Unilever has said it expects the Sara Lee deal to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2010.

Personal care, which includes shampoo and skin products, has been outperforming Unilever’s other divisions in recent quarters, thanks in part to the success of Degree deodorant and Suave shampoo in the U.S. The consumer-goods giant also launched a successful range of Dove products for men across the globe earlier this year.

Source & full article: Wall Street Journal