聯合利華入股淨水企業沁園集團
Unilever, the maker of Ben & Jerry’s ice Cream, Signal toothpaste and Lipton tea, has made its biggest acquisition in China for more than a decade with the purchase of a majority stake in Qinyuan Group, a water purification business.
聯合利華(Unilever)完成了十多年來其在中國的最大一筆收購，將淨水企業沁園集團(Qinyuan Group)的多數股份納入囊中。聯合利華是Ben & Jerry's冰淇淋、潔諾(Signal)牙膏和立頓(Lipton)茶飲的生產商。The Anglo-Dutch consumer goods company said the acquisition would more than double the size of its water purification business, which has been based on its Pureit home purifier.
這家英荷消費品企業表示，此次收購將使其淨水業務的規模擴大一倍以上。該公司自有的淨水產品爲淨水寶(Pureit)家用淨水器。The company did not disclose the price nor the size of its stake but Qinyuan, founded in 1998, had sales last year of 140m.
聯合利華沒有披露對沁園的持股規模和收購價格。沁園創建於1998年，去年的銷售額爲1.4億歐元。
Unilever last hit the acquisition trail in China in 1999 when it bought ice cream maker Mountain Cream.
聯合利華在中國的上一次收購還要回溯至1999年，那一年它收購了冰淇淋生產商蔓登琳(Mountain Cream)。Paul Polman, chief executive, said Qinyuan, which uses a different purification technology from Pureit, “will bring together complementary technology from Pureit and Qinyuan and leverage Qinyuan’s local marketing insight, manufacturing and distribution strength”.
聯合利華行政總裁保羅•波爾曼(Paul Polman)表示，沁園的淨水技術與淨水寶完全不同，此次收購“將爲淨水寶和沁園帶來技術互補，同時發揮沁園對本地市場的洞察力以及生產和分銷優勢。”Water purification is a relatively small and fragmented market in China.
中國的淨水市場目前相對較小且較爲分散化。Under Mr Polman, Unilever is exiting low-growth food businesses in mature markets in favour of greater exposure to emerging markets, as well as putting the accent on healthier products.
在波爾曼的領導下，聯合利華正逐步退出成熟市場低增長的食品業務，轉而擴大在新興市場的業務規模，並把業務重點放在健康產品上。
