Godrej Consumer Products Ltd (GCPL) has agreed to acquire the Colgate-Palmolive's Soft & Gentle brand in the UK.

Keyline Brands Ltd, a UK based subsidiary of Godrej, will acquire Soft & Gentle brand from Colgate-Palmolive, the company said in a statement. The Indian company did not announce the financial details of the deal. The company also said that Soft & Gentle reported sales of 21 million pounds in 2011 and it was UK's fourth largest female deodorant brand by market share.

GCPL chairman Adi Godrej said, "The acquisition of Soft & Gentle by Keyline Brands will add profitable scale to our UK business. Over the last few years, Keyline Brands has delivered good performance and grown in double digits in very tough market environment that is witnessing little to no growth."

The company pointed out that the acquisition will be funded through cheap debt and the deal's impact on the company's debt ratio is 0.03. It also said that the company's UK business always had more distributed brands than owned brands. The company has been working to change the mix towards more owned brands. With the latest acquisition, Keyline Brands will have more owned brands than distributed brands.

Shares of GCPL rose 0.26 per cent and were trading at Rs 723.75 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).