Unilever kicks off its $5.4bn open offer for HUL

Unilever kicks off its $5.4bn open offer for HULAnglo-Dutch consumer goods giant Unilever on Friday kicked-off its voluntary open offer to hike its stake in Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL).

The open offer price has been fixed at Rs 600 apiece, but the Anglo-Dutch firm is also offering a bonus of Rs 6 per share.

Unilever, the world's second-largest consumer goods maker, has plans to invest US$5.4 billion (nearly Rs 29,380 crore) in HUL to increase its stake in the Indian subsidiary from 52.48 per cent to 75 per cent.

The company said in statement that it is "making a voluntary open offer to acquire 48,70,04,772 shares representing 22.52 percent of the total voting share capital from the public shareholders of Hindustan Unilever."

The offer will remain open till 4th of July. Once completed, Unilever's open offer would be the fifth largest M&A on record till date in India.

In January 2013, Unilever hiked the royalty fees that it charges from HUL. Starting February 1 this year, HUL will pay 3.15 per cent of its turnover as royalty to Unilever. Previously, HUL was paying a royalty of 1.4 per cent of the turnover to its parent company.

In the January-March quarter, HUL reported a year-on-year rise of 15 per cent in net profit to Rs 787 crore; while the full year net profit jumped 37.2 per cent to Rs 3,829 crore.

HUL's portfolio includes widely popular brands like Surf Excel, Wheel, Rin, Sunsilk, Lux, Pepsodent, Closeup, Kissan, Knorr, Bru etc.