Unilever Acquires Majority Share In China's Qinyuan Group

(RTTNews) - Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant Unilever Plc (UL, ULVR.L, UN) acquired Sunday a majority stake in Chinese water purification company Qinyuan Group Co. Ltd. in order to complement its Pureit water purification business. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed by the company.

"We are delighted to be making this strategic investment - a majority stake in Qinyuan - our biggest acquisition in China for more than ten years. Unilever has been building a global water purification business with Pureit, a very effective, affordable water purification device, already present in several countries in South Asia, South East Asia, Latin America and Africa," Unilever CEO Paul Polman said in a statement.

The deal will help Unilever to establish a world class hub for water purification technology and manufacturing for its Pureit business. Qianyuan is recognized as one of China's pilot national enterprises in innovation and intellectual property.

Qinyuan Group is a hi-tech enterprise engaged in research and production of household water purifier and water dispenser as well as other environment friendly hi-tech products, including water purifiers, drinking water equipment and water treatment membranes. It has obtained over a hundred patents in China and internationally.

Qinyuan generated sales of nearly 140 million euros or RMB 1.2 billion or $196 million for the twelve-month period ending December 31, 2013.

Unilever noted that the water purification market has been growing rapidly in China by more than 20 percent annually over the last three years and Qinyuan has been playing an important role in developing the market.

"This deal will more than double the size of our water purification business and will bring together complementary technology from Pureit and Qinyuan and leverage Qinyuan's local marketing insight, manufacturing and distribution strength - all under the Unilever umbrella," Polman added.

UL closed Friday's regular trading session at $40.90, up $0.04 or 0.10%t on a volume of 0.99 million shares.