Unilever’s ice cream business will have a primary listing in Amsterdam rather than London when it is demerged later this year, in a fresh blow to the UK capital.
The consumer goods group said on Thursday that the new company will also have listings in London and New York but that the primary location will be in the Netherlands, where the unit is based. Unilever itself is listed on all three markets, with a primary listing in London.
Unilever announced last year it would spin off the division as part of a wide-ranging turnaround plan. The division’s brands include Magnum and Ben & Jerry’s and it generates more than €8bn in annual revenue.
The company has appointed Jean-François van Boxmeer, chair of Vodafone, as chair of the ice cream business. The separation should be completed by the end of this year.
“This decision follows a full review by the Board of separation options, focused on maximising returns for shareholders, setting the Ice Cream business up for success and execution certainty by the end of 2025,” the company said in a statement on Thursday.
The Financial Times reported last month that Unilever was leaning towards a multiple listing of its ice cream business, and that Nelson Peltz, the activist investor and Unilever board member, had been advocating for a US listing.
The group has also been under pressure to keep the listing in its home markets of the UK and the Netherlands. The company gave the Dutch government assurances in 2020 that a future spin off would be would be listed in the Netherlands.
In a recent research note on the demerger, Warren Ackerman, analyst at Barclays, said that while a listing in the US could result in a higher valuation, this could be outweighed by UK and European shareholders being forced to sell their shares.
Unilever is in the middle of a wide-ranging restructuring initiated by its chief executive of 18 months Hein Schumacher. The “productivity programme” includes cutting 7,500 jobs and the ice cream demerger.
Schumacher said in November that he would sell smaller and underperforming food brands amounting to about £1bn in revenue, which could include anything from its plant-based food brand Vegetarian Butcher, to Pot Noodle, Marmite and Colman’s.
The group announced its full-year earnings alongside details of the listing structure, with sales growth falling behind expectations. It also forecast muted growth at the start of the year, sending shares down 6.6 per cent in early trading in London.
“Market growth, which slowed throughout 2024, is expected to remain soft in the first half of 2025,” Schumacher said.
Underlying sales in the year to December rose 4.2 per cent, compared with an expected 4.3 per cent. Turnover grew 1.9 per cent to €60.8bn. The company also announced a €1.5bn share buyback.
David Hayes, analyst at Jefferies, said he expected Unilever’s stock to underperform on the back of the subdued outlook, adding that every division missed its target in the fourth quarter of the year.
Cedric Besnard, analyst at Citi, said comments on the slow start to the year would “temper enthusiasm”.
Separately, Unilever’s rival Nestlé reported better than expected sales growth despite soaring cocoa and coffee prices as its new chief executive Laurent Freixe presses ahead with a cost-saving plan.
Freixe has set out to restore faith in the business after a period of poor performance and operational mishaps that resulted in the departure of its chief executive of eight years Mark Schneider last summer.
The maker of Nescafé and KitKat said that real internal growth — the company’s proxy for sales volumes — rose 0.8 per cent in the 12 months to January, marginally ahead of analyst expectations.
