This post was originally published on this site
Investing.com – Unilever ADRs (NYSE:UL) jumped 6.8% in Monday’s premarket trading on a report over the weekend that activist investor Nelson Peltz has built a stake in the consumer goods maker.
Peltz’s activist hedge fund Trian Partners is known for proposing operational fixes at its portfolio companies. The Financial Times report didn’t carry details on the size of Trian’s stake or when the share purchases began.
The gains bring Unilever stock roughly back to the level it was trading at before January 15, when it offered $68 billion for GlaxoSmithKline’s (NYSE:GSK) consumer health business. GSK rejected the bid as too low and Unilever has since dropped those plans. Some analysts had found the deal unexpected and raised questions over the company’s direction under Chief Executive Officer Alan Jope.
Fund manager Terry Smith called the GSK bid a “near-death experience” and urged the company to focus more on fixing its own business, Bloomberg reported.
Smith is the head of Fundsmith, Unilever’s 13th largest investor. He also said the company had “lost the plot” in seeking to promote the sustainable ethos of brands such as Hellmann’s mayonnaise rather than focusing on returns.
Peltz’ focus on Unilever follows his retirement from Procter & Gamble’s board in August after nearly four years and several changes at the U.S. giant.
