Sara Lee completes sale of beauty, detergent businesses to Unilever

DOWNERS GROVE, Ill. — Sara Lee announced on Monday that it has completed the sale of its global body care and European detergents businesses to Unilever for 1.21 billion euro ($1.6 billion).

The sale is part of Sara Lee's ongoing process of divesting its household and body care businesses.

"The divestiture of our body care and European detergents businesses further enables us to concentrate our efforts in key areas where we have a strong competitive position and can generate significant shareholder value," stated Marcel Smits, interim CEO of Sara Lee. "We remain focused on aggressively driving growth in our core coffee and protein categories."

In addition, the company has announced and closed transactions for its air care business and its stake in the Indian insecticides joint venture Godrej Sara Lee. In addition, Sara Lee announced the pending sale of its non-Indian insecticides business to SC Johnson.

Sara Lee noted that it has received interest in the remainder of its household business, primarily shoe care and Asian cleaning brands, and is continuing to pursue divestiture options for this business.