- Shares climb 7% in biggest one-day gain since January
- Peltz experienced at negotiating at board level
- Stake puts Trian among top five shareholders
Shares in the UK’s largest consumer goods firm and its fourth-largest firm by market value, Unilever (ULVR), jumped to the top of the FTSE 100 leader board rising 7% to £37.40 on news a US activist investor had been made non-executive director.
Nelson Peltz, chief executive and founding partner of Trian Fund Management, will take up his role in July and has been made a member of the compensation committee into the bargain.
PREVIOUS FORM
Trian manages funds which own 37.4 million shares in Unilever or 1.5% of the company’s capital, while Peltz himself is currently non-executive chairman of US burger chain Wendy’s (WEN:NASDAQ).
Previously, Peltz served on the boards of Procter & Gamble (PG:NYSE), Mondelez (MDLZ:NASDAQ) and Heinz (KHC:NASDAQ) so he is well used to dealing with senior management at consumer goods companies.
His appointment is seen as adding to pressure on bosses at the Dove to Marmite-maker to come up with a market-pleasing strategy after the botched attempt earlier this year to take over GSK's (GSK) health care unit.
Unilever chairman Nils Andersen said the company had held ‘extensive and constructive discussions’ with Peltz and the Trian team and he looked forward to ‘working closely together to create long-term sustainable value for our shareholders and wider stakeholders’.
ROWING TOGETHER
For his part, the billionaire investor said Unilever had ‘significant potential through leveraging its portfolio of strong consumer brands and its geographical footprint’ and he looked forward to ‘working collaboratively with management and the board to help drive the company's strategy, operations, sustainability and shareholder value for the benefit of all stakeholders’.
The Trian stake puts the firm among the top five shareholders in Unilever, giving it plenty of leverage, and analysts looked on the news favourably.
RBC welcomed Peltz’s appointment, suggesting that even if it didn’t result in an immediate direct effect on the group’s strategy his presence could help ‘drive collaboration among Unilever’s other shareholders and raise the company’s profile in the media to increase accountability of ongoing changes’.
