Unilever Sells Slim-Fast to Kainos Capital
Unilever has sold its Slim-Fast brand to private equity firm Kainos Capital. Unilever will retain a minority stake in the business.
The transaction includes the Slim-Fast trademark and the global Slim-Fast business portfolio. Slim-Fast is sold throughout North America and in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Unilever acquired Slim-Fast for $2.3 billion in April 2000.
Kees Kruythoff, president of Unilever North America, says: “The Slim-Fast sale is the last step in the portfolio reshaping that we had planned for North America. This transaction, along with previously announced divestitures, will give us the focus to drive growth behind our core portfolio.”
Kainos Capital is a middle market private equity firm with an exclusive focus on the food and consumer sector. The Kainos team has extensive investment and operating experience in the industry, having invested more than $2 billion of equity in more than 40 transactions with a total transaction value in excess of $7 billion. The firm’s strategy is to build a diversified portfolio of growing and strategically relevant food and consumer businesses that trade buyers would like to acquire.
