P&G to Sell Camay and Zest to Unilever

Procter & Gamble Co., which has been selling brands to focus on its largest, most-profitable operations, said it will sell its Camay and Zest soap brands to Unilever PLC.

Terms of the sale weren't disclosed.

Unilever said the two brands had revenue of $225 million in the last fiscal year.

The sale is expected to close in the first half of 2015.

The Zest assets are outside of North America and the Caribbean. In 2011, P&G sold the rights to the Zest brand in the U.S., Canada and Caribbean markets to private-equity firm Brynwood Partners.

P&G said the sale will include the Talisman manufacturing plant in Mexico, which has about 170 employees who will transfer to Unilever.

In November, P&G announced a deal to sell battery maker Duracell to Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. In an unusual structure, Berkshire will pay P&G with about $4.7 billion of P&G's own stock, while P&G will inject about $1.8 billion in cash into Duracell.

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