Unilever, the Anglo Dutch consumer goods group, is expanding its personal care business with a €1.275bn purchase.
It is buying the personal care business of the Sara Lee Corporation, bringing in brands such as Sanex and Radox into a division which already includes Lux, Dove and Rexona. Unilever's shares are up 1p to £17.37 on the news. Charlie Menegatos, senior trader at Accendo Markets said:
The household brand names snapped up today will significantly increase Unilever's market share. The second quarter turnaround from falling sales also marks the group out as a recovery play.
Overall the market has edged higher as the G20 properly gets underway, and ahead of US new home sales later today. Given the poor reaction yesterday to a fall in existing home sales, investors are likely to be nervous until the figures are released. At the moment the FTSE 100 is up 5.58 points at 5084.85.
Miners are mixed despite a steadying of the copper price, with persistent worries about the strength of any global economic recovery. So BHP Billiton is 26.5p better at 1695.5p, but Rio Tinto is down 17.5p at £26.26.
Tullow Oil - which has been lifted in recent times by takeover speculation as well as positive drilling news - added 13p to £11.52. House broker RBS hosted an upbeat meeting yesterday with management of US oil group Anadarko, where Tullow holds 10%. Analyst Phil Corbett said:
Overall it was a competent and confident presentation from Anadarko – the upside potential from the Liberian and Ivorian basin is a simple and attractive investment case that should continue to garner significant attention from the buy-side and industry.
But Dana Petroleum lost 71p to £13.52 as the Trolla well in the Helgeland basin - where it has a 30% stake - had come up dry.
Among the mid-caps Tate and Lyle slipped 3p to 412p after it repeated earlier comments that first half profits would be lower than last year due to falling commodity prices and a higher interest charge.
