Unilever Completes Sale of Alberto VO5 Brand in U.S. and Rave Brand Globally to Brynwood Partners VI L.P.

LONDON & ROTTERDAM, Netherlands--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Unilever announced today that it has completed the sale of the Alberto VO5 brand in the United States and Puerto Rico and the Rave brand globally to private equity firm Brynwood Partners VI L.P., following approval by the US Department of Justice (DOJ). Terms were not disclosed.

The US DOJ had required the divestiture in connection with Unilever’s $3.7 billion acquisition of the Alberto Culver Company, which was completed on May 10, 2011.

Outside the United States and Puerto Rico, the Alberto VO5 brand will remain in Unilever’s portfolio.

About Unilever

Unilever works to create a better future every day. We help people feel good, look good and get more out of life with brands and services that are good for them and good for others. Unilever is one of the world’s leading suppliers of fast moving consumer goods with strong operations in more than 100 countries and sales in 180. Consumers buy 170 billion Unilever packs around the world every year, and our products are used over two billion times a day.

Our portfolio includes some of the world’s best known and most loved brands including twelve €1 billion brands, and global leadership in many categories in which we operate. The portfolio features iconic brands such as: Knorr, Hellmann’s, Lipton, Dove, Vaseline, TRESemmé, Nexxus, St. Ives and Simple.

We have around 167,000 employees, and generated annual sales of €44.3 billion in 2010. For more information about Unilever and its brands, please visit www.unilever.com.

In 2010, we launched the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan aiming to halve our overall environmental footprint. Unilever is Food Industry Leader in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Indexes for the 12th year running. We are included in the FTSE4Good Index Series and attained a top environmental score of 5, leading to inclusion in the FTSE4Good Environmental Leaders Europe 40 Index. We are also ranked 7th in the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World, a list compiled by Corporate Knights Magazine. We achieved Platinum Plus standard in the UK’s Business in the Community Corporate Responsibility Index 2009, and were named Company of the Year in 2010.

About Brynwood Partners

Founded in 1984, Brynwood Partners is an operationally-focused private equity fund that makes control investments in lower middle market companies. Brynwood Partners targets companies operating in the following sectors: (a) consumer products, (b) light manufacturing with low capital intensity, and (c) businesses services.

Brynwood Partners is currently managing over $500 million of private equity capital for its limited partners who include U.S. and international pension funds, fund-of-funds, endowments, high net worth family investment offices and financial institutions. For more information on Brynwood Partners, please visit www.brynwoodpartners.com.