Unilever to Buy U.S. Beauty Products Company

By CHRIS V. NICHOLSON
Published: September 27, 2010

PARIS — Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch consumer goods company, said Monday that it had agreed to buy the U.S. beauty care company Alberto Culver for $3.7 billion.

Unilever, which makes Dove soap, Pond’s skin cream and Vaseline, said that Alberto Culver’s array of brands — TRESemmé, Nexxus, VO5, St Ives and Simple, to name a few — would enhance its hair and skin care businesses.

The company will pay $37.50 in cash per share of Alberto Culver, which is based outside Chicago. That is 19 percent more than the stock’s price of $31.48 at the close on Friday, and a third more than its average share price for the last year.

The deal is the biggest for Unilever since last year, when it said it would acquire a line of body care products from Sara Lee, as well as its European detergent business, for $1.88 billion. That transaction has yet to be approved by the European Union regulators.

Ten years ago the personal care business “represented 20 percent of our turnover,â€