Unilever Investors Find Food Deal Tough to Digest -- WSJ

Dow Jones04-02

By Lauren Thomas

Unilever shareholders are having a tough time digesting the company's plans to combine its food business with spice maker McCormick.

Shares in the Hellmann's mayonnaise owner slipped further Thursday after suffering its biggest ever one-day decline on Tuesday-a more than 7% drop-the day the deal was announced.

The stock had touched a six-year high in February, before the war began in the Middle East, but have declined more than 20% since then. As of Thursday, Unilever had a market value of around $122 billion, compared with over $160 billion roughly two months ago.

Analysts say investors are wary of being stuck holding shares in a big publicly traded U.S. food company that could end up saddled with debt. Unilever has argued the sale of most of its food assets to McCormick will allow it to focus on higher-margin health and personal-care products.

This item is part of a Wall Street Journal live coverage event. The full stream can be found by searching P/WSJL (WSJ Live Coverage).

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 02, 2026 10:30 ET (14:30 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

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