---
title: "Kraft Heinz → Unilever"
url: "https://mahouse.world/ma-deals/kraft-heinz-buy-unilever-2017"
type: "M&A deal"
year: "2017"
---

# Kraft Heinz → Unilever

A $143bn approach withdrawn 48 hours after being made public — the shortest life of any mega-deal in the modern record.

An unsolicited approach withdrawn within three days of becoming public after Unilever's board rejected it.

- **Acquirer:** Kraft Heinz (United States)
- **Target:** Unilever (United Kingdom)
- **Value:** $143B
- **Announced:** February 2017
- **Outcome:** Terminated
- **Sector:** Consumer
- **Deal type:** acquisition

## Why it mattered

Kraft Heinz — the 3G Capital/Berkshire vehicle built on aggressive cost-outs — had run its playbook to its limit inside North American packaged food and needed a much larger revenue base to keep the model working. Unilever, with roughly twice Kraft Heinz's sales and an emerging-markets footprint the American company lacked, was the only target big enough to matter.

## The story

Kraft Heinz made its approach privately on Thursday 16 February 2017: $50 per share, half cash and half stock, an 18% premium. Unilever's board rejected the same day. When the approach leaked on Friday 17 February, Unilever's stock jumped 13% and CEO Paul Polman lobbied Downing Street directly, framing the bid as a hostile foreign takeover with post-Brexit political implications. Kraft Heinz withdrew on Sunday 19 February. Total elapsed time in public: about 55 hours.

## What it left behind

Unilever emerged transformed — accelerating a five-year restructuring, selling its spreads division to KKR for €6.8bn, buying back €5bn of stock, and reorganising into three divisions. Kraft Heinz never approached anything at that scale again and later wrote down $15bn against its own core brands in 2019. The 48-hour rejection is now the standard defence-adviser example of what a well-prepared board can do to a friendly approach.

## At a glance

- **Structure:** Friendly approach, cash + stock ($50/share, 50/50 split)
- **Premium offered:** ~18%
- **Approach made:** 16 Feb 2017
- **Leaked:** 17 Feb 2017
- **Withdrawn:** 19 Feb 2017
- **Backed by:** 3G Capital & Berkshire Hathaway
- **Unilever price move on leak:** +13%
- **Break fee:** None (no signed agreement)