Reckitt Benckiser Starts Review of Food Unit -- Update
April 03 2017 - 4:16AM
Dow Jones News
By Denise Roland and Ian Walker
LONDON-- Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC, the owner of French's
mustard and several cleaning and health brands, said Monday it is
starting a strategic review of its food business.
The maker of Lysol antiseptics and Air Wick air fresheners said
it would explore all options for the food business, which it called
no longer core to the company. Reckitt provided no further
information and said it would update the market when
appropriate.
The Slough, England-based company, which also makes Durex
condoms and Nurofen painkillers, was responding to recent press
comments. Reports over the weekend suggested the company was
planning to sell the unit, and could raise up to $3 billion to help
fund its $16.6 billion takeover of baby-food maker Mead Johnson
Nutrition Co.
Kraft Heinz Co. was cited in those reports as one of the
potential bidders following its failed $143 billion bid for rival
Unilever PLC earlier this year.
The food unit, whose brands also include Frank's RedHot sauces,
generated GBP411 million ($516 million) of the company's overall
revenue of GBP9.89 billion in 2016.
It is already managed separately from the rest of Reckitt
Benckiser's business, which largely focuses on cleaning products,
over-the-counter remedies and brands such as K-Y lubricants and
Veet hair-removal cream.
On Friday, Reckitt disclosed in its annual report that the board
cut Chief Executive Rakesh Kapoor's pay last year after a scandal
at the company's South Korean business, in which scores of people
were killed and hundreds left with permanent lung damage by a
humidifier disinfectant between 2001 and 2011.
Mr. Kapoor received total pay of GBP14.6 million last year,
compared with GBP25.5 million in 2015, a figure that made him one
of the highest-paid bosses in the FTSE 100 that year. His 2015 pay
package stoked a rebellion among some shareholders, with 18% of
investors voting against last year's pay policy.
Reckitt's remuneration committee said Mr. Kapoor would have been
entitled to a further GBP14 million in bonus and share rewards had
the committee not decided to "exercise discretion" to curb his
pay.
Write to Denise Roland at Denise.Roland@wsj.com and Ian Walker
at ian.walker@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 03, 2017 05:01 ET (09:01 GMT)
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