New suitor

London, July 11(AP): Shares of Unilever rose more than 2 per cent on Wednesday on speculation in the market about Colgate-Palmolive being interested in all or part of the consumer products maker.

Unilever, the owner of brands such as Knorr soup, Dove soap and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Shares in New York-based Colgate-Palmolive, whose brands include Colgate, Palmolive, Mennen, Softsoap and Irish Spring, rose 1 per cent to $66.43 (48.66 euros) on the New York Stock Exchange. The company is valued at about $33.64 billion (24.64 billion euros).

“We do not comment on rumours as a matter of policy,” said Allison Klimerman, a Colgate-Palmolive spokesperson.

Shares in Unilever rose 2.2 per cent in London to close at 1,683 pence (24.88 euros or $33.96), putting the company’s market capitalisation at about £22.1 billion ($44.6 billion or 32.7 billion euros).

That followed a gain of 1.9 per cent a day earlier, when food companies were lifted by French yogurt and water company Danone’s $16.75-billion (12.3 billion euros) bid for Dutch nutritional business Royal Numico NV.

“It has long been believed that (Unilever) would like to acquire (Colgate-Palmolive) some day, and that there would be substantial cost synergies, especially in Latin America, where both companies have strong market positions,” said analysts at Oppenheimer. “The reverse situation — that Colgate-Palmolive acquire Unilever — is less expected.”

Unilever had said in February that full-year net profit rose 26 per cent to 4.75 billion euros ($6.17 billion), while sales rose 3.1 per cent to 39.6 billion euros ($51.44).

A poor performance after the turn of the century led to a management shake-up at Unilever in 2004.

Since then, the company has been targeting sales growth by investing heavily in its biggest brands while trying to maintain or slightly increase margins.