Unilever’s ice cream scoop-out may increase appetite for another split

Investor appetite might be whetted for bolder action on the group’s bloated portfolio

Financial Times

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Unilever’s ice cream scoop-out may increase appetite for another split

Actually making the announced cost cuts and reinvesting the money profitably requires better execution than Unilever has managed in the past.

Spin offs work particularly well when the original corporate hodge podge obscures the value of one (or more) true gems. That isn’t the case with Unilever’s proposed demerger of its ice-cream business.

Instead of an uplift in valuation, the scoop-out may simply increase investor appetite for bolder action on the group’s bloated portfolio.

Unilever’s plan is best understood as the unwinding of a corporate footprint which made little sense in the first place. Ice-cream — which accounted for 13

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