“It's not reliable!” Just one day after the news of Unilever’s US$55 billion purchase of Colgate Palmolive Co., Ltd., Zeng Xiwen, vice president of Greater China of Unilever, denied an interview with the Yangcheng Evening News: "I also contacted the person in charge of Colgate. We both have not received any news about the acquisition from Headquarters."

Unilever is no longer "cool"?

The news of the acquisition came from Unicredit analyst Nicolas Sochovsky. In a recent investor report, it stated that Unilever will likely acquire more than 50% of the current market value of Colgate, which is approximately $55 billion. Currently, Colgate’s market value is 36.8 billion U.S. dollars.

Sokovsky's analysis pointed out that for Unilever, conducting M&A transactions is one of the quickest ways for the company to double its revenue. He pointed out that the acquisition of Colgate "will accelerate the transition of Unilever's product portfolio to personal care products, enhance Unilever's strength in emerging markets, give the company a scale effect in the US market," and increase the company's Profit rate.

“How could such an important and major acquisition be reported from the mouth of an Italian analyst?! It is not reliable.” Zeng Xiwen said frankly: “We did not receive any news about the acquisition from the headquarters.” The reporter learned that In a recent large-scale acquisition of Unilever, in 2000, it invested US$24 billion in the acquisition of “Best Food”, a large American food manufacturer known for its production of instant soup. Since then, Unilever has been relatively "cool" in its acquisitions in recent years, compared to competitors P & G.

"China" to sit three and two!

Although the acquisition of Colgate’s news temporarily “does not count”, Zeng Xiwen has always been very concerned about the Chinese toothpaste market: “It can be said that we have saved the market for state-owned brands.” He pointed out that it was “love” Chinese toothpaste.

Since "renting" to the brand of Chinese Toothpaste in 1994, Unilever has been working hard to build its toothpaste market: "Before Crest and Colgate entered China, China accounted for more than 10% of the total market, and it still holds such a share. In other words, Crest and Colgate did not divide the market from our hands, but instead grabbed the share of other brands."

“Although compared to Crest, our China still has a certain gap, but it is already in the front line with Colgate, Black, and is the only state-owned brand that competes with international brands.” Zeng Xiwen has always stressed: “Our goal is to sit and watch two!"

Insiders pointed out that Unilever’s acquisition of Colgate had passed several rounds in 10 years and ended up being overwhelming. He pointed out that acquisitions between big companies like Unilever and Colgate, even if they were interested in each other, were difficult to acquire. It can also be quite large because it also needs to apply for approval from the EU, the U.S. government, and so on.