Unilever share price: Group mulls over bid for Drunk Elephant

Unilever (LON:ULVR) is mulling over a $1-billion bid for American group Drunk Elephant, which makes skin-care products with natural, nontoxic ingredients, The Telegraph has reported. The news comes with the Anglo-Dutch consumer goods group looking to beef up its beauty product offerings.

Unilever’s share price was little changed in London on Friday, giving up 0.03 percent to close at 4,609.50p, largely in line with the benchmark FTSE 100 index which ended trading 0.06 percent lower. The group’s shares have added more than 11 percent to their value over the past year, as compared with about a 6.8-percent dip in the Footsie.

Unilever mulls over $1bn Drunk Elephant bid

The Telegraph reported yesterday that Unilever was considering a $1-billion bid for Drunk Elephant, which hired investment banks Moelis and Financo in January to explore a sale. The American skincare group was founded by Texan housewife and mother-of-four Tiffany Masterson.

The move comes with the Anglo-Dutch consumer goods group looking to expand into new areas. Recent months have seen the maker of Dove soap and Lipton tea buy French cosmetics brand Garancia,  US cleaning products group The Laundress and Netherlands-based The Vegetarian Butcher.

Analysts on blue-chip consumer goods group

Credit Suisse lifted its rating on the Anglo-Dutch consumer goods group to ‘outperform’ this month, and further hiked its target on the Unilever share price from 4,325p to 5,060p. According to MarketBeat, the blue-chip group currently has a consensus ‘hold’ rating and an average valuation of 4,354.55p.

Unilever updated investors on its first-quarter performance last month, posting sales growth and unveiling plans to return cash to shareholders. The company further announced a  share buyback programme of up to €6 billion starting this month. The Anglo-Dutch group, however, had previously cautioned that sales growth this year was likely to be at the lower end of its multi-year guidance.