Trian Partners builds stake in Unilever - report

Activist hedge fund Trian Partners is understood to have built up a stake in Unilever, it was reported on Monday, pushing shares in the under-pressure blue chip higher.

Neither the US fund, which was co-founded by Nelson Peltz, nor Unilever have commented. But the Financial Times, which first reported the move, said people with direct knowledge of the matter had confirmed that Trian had taken a position in the consumer goods giant.

The size of the stake is unknown. But any stake-building will ramp up the pressure on Unilever, which last week finally conceded defeat in its £50bn attempt to acquire GSK Consumer Healthcare.

The proposed GSK deal unnerved a number of investors, who have raised questions about chief executive Alan Jope’s plans to move away from lower-margin goods to focus on health, beauty and hygiene.

The stock fell sharply as a result and it is now down 2% so far this year. However, investors looked to welcome the potential involvement of Trian and by 1130 GMT shares in the firm - the owner of myriad brands from Dove and Domestos to Hellman’s and Knorr - were ahead 6% at 3,894.25p.

Trian, which was founded in 2005 by Peltz, Ed Garden and Peter May, has built up a reputation for forcing through change at the companies it holds stakes in.

In 2018 it took a stake worth around $3bn in fellow consumer goods company Proctor & Gamble. Peltz went on to take a seat on the board and push through a series of changes, including simplifying its corporate structure. He stepped down last year.

Victoria Scholar, head of investment at Interactive Investor, said: "Unilever has jumped to the top of the FTSE 100, bucking wider negativity and recouping most of last week’s heavy declines.

"Since the peak in August 2019, shares in Unilever have shed more than 25%, sparking shareholder hostility. The hope is that the intervention from Peltz’s group will help turnaround the face of Unilever, which has been grappling with declining sales and investor enthusiasm. His group has had success with P&G and Mondelez in the past. It looks as though the deal with GSK is dead in the water, while Jope is at serious risk of being replaced."