The Board of Directors and shareholders of Unilever Ghana have approved the sale of the company’s Blue Band Margarine business to KKR and Co as part of a global sale of all of Unilever’s spread businesses across the world.
The sale amounted to 8.1 billion dollars.
Unilever Ghana Limited has been producing Blue Band Margarine within its factory premises for over four decades now.
Justifying the sale of the Blue Band Margarine business, Chairman of Unilever, Edward Effah said the decision is to improve the company’s profits in future.
He explained that “Not only is Unilever disposing off its spread business but Unilever has also done some acquisitions over the last year”.
“It’s in every businesses strategic interest when you have a portfolio of products to decide that in the long-term, some products will have low margins and you may not see a future for that product, so it’s better to sell that business and invest in another business,” he stressed.
Highlighting some areas Unilever has ventured into in the past years, Mr. Effah stated that the company has also acquired businesses that produce body creams all over the world.
“So we’ve seen in the last year Unilever acquire other businesses like Sandal, a business that sells body products and creams in America and other parts of the world. In the same way Unilever has acquired a specialist tea business known as Pukka Tea.”
The Chairman of Unilever Mr. Edward Effah was speaking at the 44th Annual General Meeting of the company.
Unilever AGM
The AGM, which was held at the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons in Accra, was used to among other things receive the report of the directors, financial position as at 31st December 2017 and the Report of the Auditors.
The meeting was also used to declare a dividend pay-out of GHC 0.25 per share from the 2017 profits which amounted to a total of GHC 15.625 million. Other key developments at the meeting were the re-election of directors, approval of director’s fees as well as the approval of the proposed sale of Unilever’s Spreads (Blue Band margarine) business to KKR and Co.
Unilever Ghana Limited results for the year ended 31 December 2017 show a revenue increase of 16 % from GHC 496 million in 2016 to GHC 576 million in 2017, mostly due to increase in volumes sold.
The company’s operating profit before tax was GHC 65.3 million, representing 22 % increase over 2016’s GHC 53.5 million.
The company made some changes on its board by replacing Mr. Joseph Zilare Amuna (who resigned in July, 2017) with Mr. Nazaire Djako.