Unilever Revives Q-Tips Sale, Hired Morgan Stanley to Launch Renewed Bid for Divestiture

Unilever plc has restarted the sale process for its Q-Tips and Impulse perfume line. Sources who are familiar with the matter revealed the company already hired Morgan Stanley and Evercore Inc. to organize the sale of the company’s non-core beauty and personal care brands.

According to Reuters, Unilever’s decision to resume the sale of Q-Tips, and its other brands was not reported but this marks the first major step being taken by the firm’s new chief executive officer, Hein Schumacher, who took over the role just two months ago. He is starting to make his moves in an effort to boost the business that has been struggling to cope with inflation.

In any case, the sale of the said brands was initiated two years ago, but the plan was ditched. Now it has been opened again, and other than Q-Tips and Impulse, the other names that are likely to be sold are those under its Elida Beauty brand, such as Caress, Zwitsal, Monsvon, Brut, Matey, and Moussel. It was mentioned that last year, Elida’s sales reached $760 million.

The first time that Unilever put Q-Tips and the others up for sale, it hired Credit Suisse. It asked to arrange for the sale of Elida, but the process was halted in the same year. At that time, the main reason for the pullout was - the offers received did not meet the company’s valuation expectations.

As the sale failed, Unilever opted to just work on improving its marketing strategy and made Elida a standalone unit. The company thinks this will also improve the division’s overall appeal to private equity firms should it still be sold later.

And now that the sale is up again, Morgan Stanley and Evercore have reached out to several parties already. This is to determine if the acquisition interest in Elida has changed. They want to know if Unilever can get a multi-billion-dollar deal for the transaction.

Meanwhile, it was in November 2021 when The Wall Street Journal reported about Unilever’s move to shelve its plan to sell Q-Tips. At that time, the company also aimed to sell its Caress body wash line, TIGI hair care, alongside the well-known ear swabs brand.

Photo by: Unilver Media Assets