A jump in Unilever shares on Monday pushed its market value to £100bn after news that Nelson Peltz’s activist hedge fund Trian Partners has built a stake in the FTSE 100 consumer goods group (The Financial Times £).
Shares in the Hellmann’s and Marmite maker jumped 7.3%, or 268.5p, to 3943.5p (The Mail).
The Telegraph sets out to answer why billionaire activist Nelson Peltz is set to put Unilever in a spin. “The race is on for Unilever to prove it can deliver a shake-up without being pushed after activist investor Nelson Peltz builds up stake.”
Nelson Peltz’s Trian will force Unilever to be bolder than it planned, argues The Times (£). “The activist investor has been here before and is a man in a hurry.”
A strongly worded business editorial in The Telegraph thunders that ‘arrogant Unilever has blundered its way to a cliff edge’. “Boss Alan Jope is now on borrowed time – the question is whether he is brave enough to jump first, or waits to be pushed.”
The business editorial in The Times (£) says, “Peltz’s arrival turns up the heat on a Unilever board that backed Jope’s Glaxo foray and has now wrong-footed investors twice since 2018’s botched attempt to relocate to the Netherlands.”
Investors cheering the arrival of Nelson Peltz need to be alert to the pratfalls, says Alex Brummer in The Mail.
The consumer goods giant Unilever is set to announce thousands of job cuts this week, according to BBC News. The Marmite and Dove soap maker will slash staff numbers in more than 100 countries, with cuts in the “low thousands” planned, a source told the organisation.
Consumer goods giant Unilever is preparing to cut thousands of management jobs across the business in a “major initiative” due to be announced within days (Sky News).
British producers have raised fears of beer and burger shortages and higher prices for shoppers after the government said it would stop propping up the CO2 industry (The Guardian).
The Hut Group fell again yesterday after analysts predicted its full-year profits would disappoint (The Mail).
THG’s share price tumbled almost 20% on Monday as a wider sell-off in formerly hyped technology companies gathered pace, taking the British ecommerce company’s market value below £1.5bn for the first time (The FInancial Times £).
An opinion column in The Financial Times (£) looks at why supermarkets should listen to Jack Monroe.
UK businesses count the cost of surging inflation (The Financial Times £). Companies weigh how much of their increasing expenses can be passed on to customers.
Carrefour at crossroads in battle to win back French shoppers (The Financial Times £). CEO Alexandre Bompard hands over stores to local entrepreneurs while investing in ecommerce.
The Lex column in The Financial Times (£) takes a look at an M&A process at salmon farmer NTS, with larger rival Mowi entering the fray.
Pressure is building on Seven & i Holdings, the owner of Japan’s largest convenience store chain 7-Eleven, to split the company as investors grow increasingly frustrated with “outdated” governance and poor share price performance (The FInancial Times £).
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