Shareholders seem to have their doubts as the share price dropped after the announcement. Join Guus Greve as he discussed and analyses this recently announced deal with his former colleague from Shell and current Non-executive Director, Richard Oblath. This is a new approach in the M&amp;A Podcast series and lessons from the past episodes are applied as we delve into this deal’s details. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

 Will the $65bln Unilever-McCormick Food deal create value?

The Mergers & Acquisitions Podcast 

Welcome to the Mergers and Acquisitions Podcast. M&A covers many aspects and disciplines, and over the past 20 or so editions of this podcast, most have been covered with a wide range of outstanding guests. In fact, I don't think there's that much that we have forgotten. But if I'm wrong about that, please let me know. You will have noticed that learning to do better deals, and also to do deals better, has become a key theme as we know that many deals don't create the value that they promise.

But learning can be done in many ways, and I thought in this episode we'll take a slightly different approach. We'll use the example of one specific actual deal, analyze it, and draw some learnings that may be useful for all of us. The deal in question is the $65bn merger of the food business of European company Unilever with the American company McCormick, which specializes in flavor, which was announced in March 26.

With me in the studio is a guest I wanted to have here for a long time, Richard Oblad. Richard and I have worked together off and on in these M&A teams of Shell for some 15 years, and I've shared the highs and lows of deal making with him on many occasions, in late night negotiation sessions, shared offices, meeting rooms and airports, and through every sort of phone video and other virtual connection in addition.

Since leaving Shell, Richard has built up a portfolio of activities, and today among others he serves as non-executive chair of H2 Transition Capital, an emerging global fund focused on developing, managing and investing in the hydrogen value chain.

Will the $65bln Unilever-McCormick Food deal create value?

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.

Will the $65bln Unilever-McCormick Food deal create value?

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast, not the earnings call.

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.