Unilever gets holder support at meetings to simplify group structure

By Susanna Moon

Chicago, June 26 – Unilever NV and Unilever plc obtained the needed votes to amend numerous series of notes at the meetings held Tuesday in London.

There were enough holders to form a quorum and the extraordinary resolution was passed at the separate meetings, according to a notice.

As announced May 25, Unilever was soliciting consents to modify the terms of the notes in connection with a proposed company restructuring.

The company said on June 14 that it had obtained consents from holders representing more than 99% of numerous series of notes as of the early instruction deadline at 11 a.m. ET on June 13.

The early deadline was then extended to coincide with the end of the consent solicitation at 4:30 a.m. ET on June 22.

Under each consent solicitation, noteholders who gave their consents will receive an early participation fee of 0.05% regardless of when they did so. Originally, they had to respond by the original early instruction deadline.

As reported, Unilever was looking to simplify the dual-parent structure of the Unilever Group under a new single parent company New NV.

The notes covered by the solicitation are as follows:

• €300 million 0% notes due April 2020;

• €750 million 1.75% notes due August 2020;

• €500 million 0% notes due July 2021;

• €750 million 0.5% notes due February 2022;

• €600 million 0.375% notes due February 2023;

• €500 million 1% notes due June 2023;

• €500 million 0.5% notes due August 2023;

• €500 million 0.5% notes due April 2024;

• €650 million 0.875% notes due July 2025;

• €700 million 1.125% notes due February 2027;

• €600 million 1% notes due February 2027;

• €700 million 1.125% notes due April 2028;

• €750 million 1.375% notes due July 2029;

• €800 million 1.625% notes due February 2033;

• £350 million 1.125% notes due February 2022;

• £250 million 1.375% notes due September 2024; and

• £250 million 1.875% notes due September 2029.

“On 15 March 2018, Unilever announced the next steps in its transformation into a simpler, more agile and more focused business,” according to a previous company announcement.

“The proposed simplification will provide greater flexibility for strategic portfolio change and help drive long-term performance. Simplification will introduce a single holding company, New NV, with one class of shares and a global pool of liquidity.”

Shareholder meetings will be held in the third quarter.

The solicitation agents are Deutsche Bank AG, London Branch (+44 20 7545 8011), HSBC Bank plc (+44 20 7992 6237 or LM_EMEA@hsbc.com) and UBS Ltd. (+44 20 7568 2133 or ol-liabilitymanagement-eu@ubs.com).

The tabulation agent is Lucid Issuer Services Ltd. (+44 20 7704 0880, fax +44 20 7067 9098 or unilever@lucid-is.com).

Unilever is a consumer products company based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

© 2015 Prospect News.
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