Consumer Products and Services

M&A houses nab bulk of Wella/P&G work

18 Mar 2003

What gives? Drueker, Greenhill, Lazard and Rothschild snatched the lion's share of the biggest European consumer deal. The bulge bracket calls it an anomaly. The boutiques say it's a permanent shift. They are probably both wrong.

Wella preference shareholders on red alert

17 Mar 2003

Any sale of the consumer group to P&G should benefit ordinary shareholders. Not so for the preferreds. These shares can be snaffled up by paying the threemonth average, which is 10% below current market prices.

Wella circled by bidders

11 Mar 2003

Henkel's purchase of 6.9% of Wella looks like a spoiling tactic to stop P&G deal by preventing a squeezeout of minorities. This smacks of desperation by Henkel, which is outgunned by P&G. The money it spent would have made a nice share buyback.

L’Oreal performance looks glossy

20 Feb 2003

Granted, 18% growth in earnings per share looks great. But L Oreal s performance is already reflected in its toppy valuation. Moreover, lower interest charges and lighter than expected taxes also helped to add some shine.

Reckitt holds onto its cash

19 Feb 2003

The AngloDutch consumer products group decided against a stock buyback to keep powder dry for doing deals. Having promised to hand back cash if it failed to make acquisitions last year which it did this policy simply looks stingy.

Unilever should offer more of the same

13 Feb 2003

The consumer products group has reached nearly all of its costcutting and margin expansion targets. It would be tempting for it to come up with a new growth story. But there s still a lot to shoot for from its current one.

Reckitt Benckiser nicked on Schick

21 Jan 2003

Whatever the case, investors can now expect even demand Reckitt to juice up its dividend or buy back stock. The AngloDutch consumer products group has shown either laudable restraint or an inability to win in recent auctions.

Reckitt should gear up and return cash

13 Nov 2002

The AngloDutch personal care company is fairly valued, even if it still has room to expand margins in line with P&G and Colgate. But it does have juice left to tickle shareholders a clean balance sheet that it can use to buy back its shares.

Reckitt should gear up and return cash

13 Nov 2002

Boots runs to stand still

7 Nov 2002

Growth is proving elusive. Worse, Boots faces regulatory uncertainty on its drugs dispensing business. If everyone can sell prescription drugs, Boots will lose much of its competitive advantage.

Boots runs to stand still

7 Nov 2002

Mergermarket: Tchibo may brighten German M&A

10 Oct 2002

Heard in Europe: Beiersdorf’s appeal is only skin-deep

30 Sep 2002

Skin deep

23 Sep 2002

Shaving costs

4 Sep 2002

Don’t have a cow, Bart

29 Aug 2002

Staple diet

22 Aug 2002

The path not taken

31 Jul 2002

Oleaginous speculation

20 May 2002

Gucci’s prudence

21 Mar 2002