Unilever promotes personal care boss to CEO as Polman retires

Unilever chief executive Paul Polman will step down from the role at the end of next month and be replaced by the group's beauty & personal care boss, Alan Jope.

Polman, who has held the reins of the Anglo-Dutch giant for a decade but has perhaps lost the support of some investors after the bungled attempt to move to a single Netherlands headquarters, will support the transition process during the first half of the year.

Jope, a Scotsman who joined the company as a graduate marketing trainee in 1985 and initially progressed through roles in the US, before moving onto role including heading up Unilever's business in Greater China, served as president of the Russia, Africa & Middle East segment, running the company's North Asia business for four years before being appointed to lead Unilever's largest division, which he has done since 2014.

Chairman Marijn Dekkers said: "He is a strong, dynamic and values-driven leader with an impressive track record of delivering consistent high-quality performance."

He also praised Polman's transformation of Unilever into "one of the best-performing companies in its sector", also noting his role in "helping to define a new era of responsible capitalism" in the form of the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan.

Reports earlier in the week indicated Unilever is in pole position to buy the $4bn Indian nutrition business of GlaxoSmithKline.

Unilever shares were a few pennies higher at 4,263p in early trading on Thursday morning.

"It’s no real surprise to see Paul Polman leave Unilever," said analyst Neil Wilson at Markets.com. "The botched plan to move the company HQ to Rotterdam was a sorry way to finish an exceptional career at the company. Since that move failed, you had the sense that investors were a little put out and there was clearly a desire for a fresh start and a new leader to take the company in a different direction."

Wilson added that there was plenty for new man Jope to get on with, not least the "rather expensive" GSK acquisition.

"A focus on emerging markets is clearly critical to delivering growth and shareholder value, but at such a price the execution has to be right," he said. "Shares in Unilever have not come down since that Kraft bid. Increasing leverage has helped to cement that and discourage other suitors, though Mr Jope will have to find other ways to boost organic growth in a largely ex-growth market.”

UBS said it believed a change at the top of the company "has been widely anticipated" and that an internal appointment "is likely to ensure continuity as Unilever makes progress towards its 2020 targets", while Jope's M&A strategy would now come into question.

"In recent years, Unilever has been a prolific acquirer of small assets and most of these acquisitions have taken place in the Beauty & PC division. Unilever has also entered the prestige beauty category, but it is yet to scale it up. With Mr Jope appointed as the new CEO, we would expect investors to debate the merits (e.g., diversification) and the shortcomings (e.g. ROIC impact, brand proliferation) of such a M&A strategy more openly."

Liberum's Nico von Stackelberg "couldn't help but notice" that both Unilever's CFO and CEO are now Scottish.