Colgate Announces Acquisition of Sanex Personal Care Brand in Europe and Divestment of its Laundry Detergent Business in Colombia

Colgate-Palmolive Company (NYSE:CL), as part of its strategy to focus on its higher-margin oral care, personal care and pet nutrition businesses, today announced that it has agreed to purchase the Sanex personal care brand from Unilever PLC for €672 million (approximately US$940 million). Sanex is a premium-priced personal care brand with a distinct positioning around healthy skin and strong market share positions in Europe. This strategic acquisition will greatly strengthen Colgate's important personal care business in Europe.

Sanex is a multi-category personal care brand with 2010 net sales of €187 million (approximately US$260 million), primarily in Western Europe. Liquid body cleansing and deodorants each represent nearly 50% of the business.

Ian Cook, Colgate's Chairman, President and CEO commented, “Sanex is a very strong brand that we have admired for a long time. We are delighted that this acquisition will strengthen Colgate's positions in the shower gel and deodorant categories in several key countries in Europe and our overall personal care business in that region.

“Sanex's unique positioning around skin health is a terrific complement to Palmolive's natural extracts and skin care positioning, as well as to our Protex brand which focuses on antibacterial protection for skin.”

In connection with the Sanex acquisition, Colgate has agreed to sell its laundry detergent business in Colombia to Unilever for $215 million.

Mr. Cook continued, “The Sanex acquisition and the divestment of our detergent business in Colombia are both consistent with Colgate's ongoing strategy to de-emphasize non-core portions of our portfolio while focusing on our high-margin, strategically important oral care, personal care and pet nutrition businesses.”

The Sanex purchase is structured as an all cash acquisition for shares and net assets for an aggregate price of €672 million (approximately US$940 million), subject to certain adjustments at closing, which is currently expected to occur by the end of the second quarter of this year.

These transactions are expected to have an accretive effect, on a combined basis, of approximately 4% on total company earnings in 2011 due entirely to the one-time gain on the detergent business sale and a positive effect on earnings in 2012 of approximately 1% from growth and efficiencies of the Sanex business.

The Sanex acquisition is subject to closing conditions, including regulatory approval by the European Commission. The detergent sale is subject to closing conditions, including regulatory approval in Colombia and the prior closing of the Sanex acquisition.

Citigroup Global Markets Inc. acted as exclusive financial advisor and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz acted as legal advisor to Colgate-Palmolive on both transactions.