ABF cooks up £248m Mazola buy
ASSOCIATED British Foods has snapped up Mazola cooking oil in a $360m (£248m) deal with consumer products group Unilever. The group's US unit is buying 19 Unilever food brands in North America, paying in cash from its £900m war chest.
Other brands in the deal include Karo and Golden Griddle syrups and Henri's salad dressing. AB Foods' US unit ACH already owns several leading foodservice oil brands after a deal with Procter & Gamble last year for Whirl and Frymax.
The Unilever brands generated sales of £214m last year and AB Foods' shares sizzled 6% in the City after the deal was announced. Chief executive Peter Jackson said: 'This acquisition is in line with our ongoing policy of investing in areas where we have strength and expertise.'
AB Foods owns businesses including clothing retailer Primark to tea brand Twinings and British Sugar. At last week's interim results, the group said it was 'actively pursuing' bolt-on acquisitions. Cash generation across itsoperations is expected to swell the war chest back up £900m by its year end in November.
About 200 employees will transfer to ACH. Unilever put the brands up for sale after it bought Bestfoods in 2000.
