Two week deadline for £6.1bn Flora sale

BIDDERS vying for Unilever’s spreads have less than two weeks to submit an offer.

The consumer goods giant has invited private equity bidders to submit offers for the £6.1bn business – which includes I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter, Flora and Stork, by October 19 – according to sources.

The sale process first kicked off in late September, with Unilever’s banks sending out confidential information to a series of heavyweight buy-out funds which are rumoured to have been mulling over the deal since the summer.

Offers have been dominated by private equity groups, which have teamed up in three rival consortiums.

Bain Capital and Clayton Dubilier & Rice reportedly form one group, Blackstone and CVC Capital Partners another, while investment firm KKR is rumoured to have partnered up with Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC Private Limited.

American investment fund Apollo is said to be looking to bid alone.

In April Unilever announced it would be selling its spreads business in a bid to boost shareholder returns after it rejected a £115bn takeover by Kraft Heinz earlier this year.

Last month it snapped up South Korean skincare firm Carver Korea for £2bn from Bain Capital Private Equity and Goldman Sachs in a bid to move further into the beauty division.