Unilever is safe, but we need better defences against short-term capitalism

A £115bn bid from US predator Kraft Heinz was successfully fended off. But the prime minister must see that things could have gone very differently

The best defence against a bid is a high share price. So congratulations to Unilever, whose shares have improved by 20% since the day before Kraft Heinz turned up offering to buy the maker of Hellmann’s mayonnaise and Magnum ice creams.

In the event, Unilever blew Kraft Heinz’s £115bn proposal out of the water within 48 hours. Fury from the boardroom, plus Kraft’s belated realisation that it was walking into a storm, did the trick. But Unilever has wasted little time in moving to protect itself better. It has pledged to “capture more quickly the value we see” – which usually means running the business harder and ensuring the backdoor is not left ajar for opportunistic bidders.

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from Mergers and acquisitions | The Guardian http://ift.tt/2mdCpjo