LONDON: Unilever said it will split spreads into a standalone unit, a first step toward a possible exit from a business that the company has struggled to turn around over the past two years. The division will be fully operational by mid-2015 and will only operate in developed markets, Unilever said in slides presented by chief financial officer Jean-Marc Huet at an investor seminar, here, yesterday. The stock rose as much as 3.5 per cent, the steepest intraday gain since January. Unilever said it doesnt plan to sell or spin off the unit. œThis is long overdue, Andrew Wood, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, said by email. œHopefully it is a forerunner to the eventual sale or spin of the business, but it is clearly no longer part of the core future of Unilever, which is good news. Bloomberg
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