Unilever advertisers want a split or a new seat in the middle of dissatisfaction

Two of Unilever’s biggest investors have demanded a major overhaul of the company or its organization over chasing £ 50bn to follow of the GlaxoSmithKline consumer health business.

Bert Flossbach, co-founder and chief financial officer at Flossbach von Storch, Cologne’s € 80bn treasurer and top 10 shareholder, said the FTSE 100 buyers’ group should also consider redesigning its structure, which includes three-quarters of the shares. beauty, food and stocks. household items.

“Unilever needs to think seriously to divide the company, ”He said. “Negotiations of cooperation between different businesses are often hypothetical and are designed to keep it as it is, and much less than what you would gain by dividing it.”

Flossbach had previously been one of the sponsors of German carmaker Daimler modify its larger car segment from its Mercedes-Benz high-performance car project, which was completed this week.

“If you are a food administrator, you think differently from a household manager or a A beauty manager, ”He added. “If you run these businesses under one budget you could be a problem. And you are very different because you do not know exactly what you stand for.”

Flossbach said one way would be to keep the food business under Unilever’s name and remove other shares. “You develop the skills and develop the spirit of the company when it has a clear goal. Reducing the cost alone is not enough.”

Another 20-year-old asked to remove Unilever’s chair, Nils Andersen, expressing concern that he and the board had allowed Alan Jope’s boss to do so. increasing businesses in the GSK regiona possible contract whose size and timing were detrimental to investors and led to a return.

Those in the top 20 said a new chair should be selected from outside the board. He also said that Andersen’s successor could review all of Unilever’s options and whether Jope and his financier Graeme Pitkethly were fit for office.

Bruno Monteyne, a Bernstein researcher, said: “Based on the discussions I’ve had with shareholders, I think there have been a number of people who would allow a radical change in the new chair.”

Dissatisfaction of those who continue to exacerbate the pressure on the Jope and Unilever board, weeks after the Financial Times newspaper revealed that US freedom fighter Trian Partners is in trouble. built a tree in the company.

Although Trian has not yet commented on the change, experts say a freedom fighter could push to share the food in his hands.

Last week Unilever announced a restructuring, cutting 1,500 management positions and divide the company into five categories, including ice cream and snacks. This could open the door to change, according to Jefferies researcher Martin Deboo.

Hermann Soggeberg, chairman of Unilever’s European Works Council, said workers had been told there were no plans to be fired, but that Trian’s participation was worrying workers who feared a split or lay off.

The renovation announced last week “seems to have gone around. Here we are exactly where we started when I was working here 20 years ago, ”he said.

Analysts and investors are divided over whether a system reform would bring the owners’ benefit, however. The top 20 shareholder said Unilever should focus on improving the existing business before the major changes, while the 25th largest shareholder said: does not profit. ”

Andersen, the former Danish chief executive of the Maersk Railways and brewery Carlsberg, was elected chairman of Unilever in 2019 after four years on the board, shortly after Jope, the company’s former chief executive, took over.

Unilever declined to comment.