Colgate to buy Sanex unit for about $940 mn

Colgate-Palmolive Co agreed to buy Unilever’s Sanex personal-care unit for about $940 million, pursuing its biggest purchase in more than a decade to expand in deodorant and body wash overseas. Colgate also will sell its Colombian laundry detergent business to Unilever for $215 million. Sanex, which Unilever had to sell to allay European Union competition concerns, generated sales of about $260 million last year. Colgate, which generates more than 80 per cent of sales outside North America, will gain a foothold in key parts of the personal-care market in Western Europe as a result of the transaction.