P&G sells Zest soap business

Combe sells Cepacol and Lanacane to Reckitt Benckiser and Odor-Eaters to Blistex.

Beiersdorf to sell Juvena

Beiersdorf AG is selling a couple of personal care brands to focus on its best-selling Nivea franchise. Yesterday, the company said it will sell its Juvena skin care brand and Marlies Möller hair care line to Austria’s Troll Cosmetics GmbH. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Juvena and Marlies Möller are managed by Beiersdorf’s Switzerland-based La Prairie Group.

“Selling the two brands will allow Beiersdorf to focus its resources within the selective market on developing La Prairie, the global premium skin care brand,” stated Thomas-B. Quaas, chairman of Beiersdorf’s executive board.

Privately-held Troll Cosmetics was founded in 1990 and produces the Declaré brand for sensitive skin, which is carried in selective distribution in 40 countries.

The move was announced following reduced earnings outlook for 2010 that was reported earlier this month by Beiersdorf, which also markets Eucerin and La Prairie. Personnel and strategy changes, including the reduction of its makeup business, are also being implemented. Beiersdorf stated it will focus its selective market resources on La Prairie.

Juvena and Marlies Möller are largely sold in Europe and employ around 90 people in five countries. Talks with Troll Cosmetics are being held about taking over the staff.

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Brown-Forman to Sell Wine Unit

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Novartis Buys Rest of Alcon for $12.9 Billion

Novartis AG Wednesday paved the way to take full ownership of Alcon Inc. after sweetening its original share offer with a cash component, ending a drawn-out battle to acquire the remaining 23% of the U.S. eye-care company in a deal worth $12.9 billion.

The full acquisition—intended to help Novartis capitalize on an eye-care market that is expected to grow faster than pharmaceuticals in coming years—will now cost Novartis about $51.6 billion, making it Switzerland's biggest takeover so far and one of the biggest ever in the industry.

Under the new agreement, Novartis will guarantee minority shareholders $168 per share. The number of Novartis shares it's offering hasn't changed, and still stands at 2.8. When the offer to the public shareholders was made at the beginning of the year, it was valued at about $153 per share, but Novartis stock has risen since then. The new $168-a-share offer equals the average of what Novartis previously paid Nestle SA for two chunks of Alcon totaling 77% of the company. Novartis paid Nestle $38.7 billion in total.

Novartis said it will add cash if necessary to guarantee a value of $168 per share should its stock drop. If the value of 2.8 Novartis shares is more than $168, then the number of Novartis shares will be reduced accordingly. When Novartis made its initial bid to minority shareholders, they rejected it as too low.

Minority shareholders meanwhile pressed Novartis to provide them with some sort of cash buffer that would help shield them if Novartis's share price were to fall in value.

Alcon's independent board of directors, which backs the new deal, had previously threatened possible litigation and had opened a $50 million trust to finance potential lawsuits.

"With this step Novartis takes full ownership, becoming the global leader in eye care, a rapidly expanding, innovative platform based on the growing needs of an aging population," Novartis chairman Daniel Vasella said in a statement.

The full buyout reflects Novartis's drive to broaden its product portfolio and help it tap the growing eye-care market. Alcon's inclusion will add about $6.5 billion in additional sales to Novartis, which last year had revenue of about $44 billion. The buyout should also help the Swiss company mitigate a steep sales drop from lost patent protection for its two biggest medicines, heart drug Diovan and cancer drug Glivec.

Novartis predicts that fully acquiring Alcon will help it create annual synergies of about $300 million, up from $200 million that would have resulted from a partial acquisition. Also, owning only 77% of the company would have forced it to run Alcon at arm's length.

Novartis shares traded 6.6% higher in Zurich on Wednesday, up 3.20 Swiss francs at 56.80 francs—still valuing the stock portion of the bid at marginally below the guaranteed value. Shares of Alcon had closed at $162.43 on the New York Stock Exchange Tuesday and are likely to move toward $168 on Wednesday.

Fortune Brands Plans to Split Up Jim Beam, Titleist and Moen

Fortune Brands is a 25-year-old company, though many of its operations were founded decades ago. The company was known as American Brands until 1997, when it changed its name after selling several businesses, including a tobacco unit.

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Pfizer CEO Jeff Kindler Retires Suddenly

China's Bright Food to Purchase of GNC

China's Bright Food Group Co. is close to a deal to buy U.S. vitamin retail chain GNC Holdings Inc. for between $2.5 billion to $3 billion, people familiar with the matter said, the latest sign of growing Chinese appetite for U.S. companies.

A deal for Pittsburgh-based GNC, which is owned by Ares Management and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board, could be announced in the next few days, the people added. But they cautioned that last-minute snags could delay or derail the deal, especially as the two sides are still hashing out a final contract.

Bright Food is among a growing list of state-backed Chinese companies that are scouring acquisition opportunities around the world, from shale gas to cookies. This is reordering the globe's M&A business, putting Chinese companies at the forefront of auctions in which their participation would have been unthinkable just years ago.

Bright Food, one of China's largest food and dairy companies, itself was in recent talks to buy snack maker United Biscuits for about $3.2 billion, but then turned its attention to GNC, said two of the people familiar with the matter.

GNC sells nutrition supplements, vitamins, sports drinks and other diet products through its global network of about 7,100 stores. Earlier this year, the company entered into a joint venture with Bright to help GNC sell its products in the fast-growing Chinese market.

GNC's current owners bought the company for $1.65 billion in 2007 from private equity firm Apollo Management.

The retailer initially attracted interest from private-equity firms, but has seriously pursued sale negotiations with Bright Food because the Chinese firm was willing to offer far more than the other suitors, one of the people said.

At least two banks are providing the financing for Bright Foods, and more firms may join the financing group, according to the people familiar with the matter.

For the first nine months of 2010, GNC reported net income of $78.3 million, reflecting a 37.6% increase from the same period in 2009. GNC's revenues through September were almost $1.4 billion, compared to about $1.3 billion in the first nine months last year.

Shanghai's Bright Food has more than 3,300 retail outlets, which include the NGS supermarket Jiegiang chain stores and the Guangmin convenience stores, according to its Web site. The company also has a strong presence as a seller of candy, sugar, honey products, rice wine and cigarettes.

Bright also has a food processing and agriculture business that involves breeding seeds, and producing meat, milk and vegetables. The company was established in 2006 and is a state-backed enterprise.

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Kellogg CEO retires amid trouble

The CEO of Kellogg Co. stepped down in a surprise move Monday, following a year when recalls, lawsuits, product shortages, increasing costs and intense competition left the Battle Creek-based cereal maker with soggy profits.

David Mackay announced that he will retire Jan. 2, after four years as the ninth CEO and president of 104-year-old Kellogg. "This past summer, I became eligible to retire and made a commitment to spend more time with my family," the 55-year-old Mackay said in a statement.

He will be replaced by John Bryant, the current chief operating officer, who's been with the company since 1998. Bryant has led the North America and international divisions and served as chief financial officer.

"It's really tough to say if the strain associated with all the problems prompted Mackay to retire or if the board showed some frustration and nudged him out," said Matt Arnold, a consumer analyst with Edward Jones financial adviser. "Either way, given the challenges the company faces, it's not surprising that he's stepping aside."

Mackay steps down after a volatile year for Kellogg. Post cereals stepped up price competition, putting pressure on Kellogg's sales and profits. The company's popular Eggo frozen waffles sporadically disappeared from stores for the first half of the year after a flood closed one of the two plants that make Eggos, at the same time the other plant was down for retooling.

Kellogg also went through one of its largest recalls in June, when it brought back 28 million boxes of cereal after complaints that an unusual smell and flavor made people sick. The company blamed the problem on excess chemicals in box liners it got from a supplier. That followed other recalls last year, as well as two agreements since last year with the Federal Trade Commission over misleading health claims for some cereals.

Last month, a federal judge approved a $10.5 million settlement in a class-action suit that charged Kellogg falsely advertised its Frosted Mini-Wheats as "clinically shown to improve children's attentiveness by nearly 20percent."

Incoming CEO Bryant told The Detroit News that while the period from 2000 to 2009 was good for Kellogg, "2010 was unquestionably a difficult year."

After a lot of price cutting in the cereal segment this year, Bryant said he thinks rising prices for sugar and other commodities will tamp down price competition, even if prices to consumers rise a bit. "I think we'll see the category turn back to a growth trajectory in 2011," he said.

Besides focusing on supply chain improvements, Bryant said Kellogg will focus on increasing innovation, including new cereals and brand extensions of Special K and Eggos. "We'll have 10 percent to 25 percent more innovation in 2011 than during 2010," he said. "We had a difficult 2010, and we know what we have to do to get back on track."

The company cut its earnings forecast in October for the second time this year, after third-quarter earnings fell 6 percent from a year ago. The company estimated 2011 earnings per share to grow at a low single-digit rate.

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Our clients include large publicly traded multi-nationals, mid-cap, family, and/or private equity-owned companies, wholesalers, and retailers. Our individual industry based practices include consumer goods companies in food and beverage, personal care, household products, over-the-counter pharmaceutical, consumer durables, and packaging services. Our specialty chemicals practice includes companies in coatings, plastics, industrials and adhesives. Our life sciences practice serves companies in bio-technology, medical device, generic, and branded pharmaceuticals. Through retained executive search services for these clients we have placed executives in top-level positions at C- Suite General Management, Sales, Marketing, Product Supply, Manufacturing, R&D, Finance and Human Resources.

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Coty Acquires TJoy of China

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Hunt Executive Search, Inc. is the preeminent supplier of "A" Player human capital to the Consumer Goods, Specialty Chemicals, Life Sciences, Packaging and Professional Service industries.

Our clients include large publicly traded multi-nationals, mid-cap, family, and/or private equity-owned companies, wholesalers, and retailers. Our individual industry based practices include consumer goods companies in food and beverage, personal care, household products, over-the-counter pharmaceutical, consumer durables, and packaging services. Our specialty chemicals practice includes companies in coatings, plastics, industrials and adhesives. Our life sciences practice serves companies in bio-technology, medical device, generic, and branded pharmaceuticals. Through retained executive search services for these clients we have placed executives in top-level positions at C- Suite General Management, Sales, Marketing, Product Supply, Manufacturing, R&D, Finance and Human Resources.

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