How tea plantations are testing private equity

Behind the Money

Topher Forhecz

Markets, Investing, News, Banking, Finance, Business, Business News, Crypto

4.4 • 350 Ratings

🗓️ 29 June 2022

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Late last year Unilever reached a $5 billion deal to sell part of its tea business, including brands like Lipton and PG Tips, to private equity giant CVC Capital. But the tea sector is a complicated one. With roots in colonialism, tea plantations around the world have faced many issues, including accusations of human rights abuses.

In this week’s episode, we’re hearing from one worker whose life was forever changed by violence on her plantation, and exploring how this deal represents a new challenge for PE as investors are increasing their scrutiny into the private equity industry’s ethics.

Clips courtesy of Unilever, Al Jazeera, AP

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For further reading:

How Unilever’s tea business became a test of private equity’s conscience

Bidders for Unilever’s tea business pulled out on plantation concerns

CVC pushes back IPO plans amid market turmoil

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On Twitter, follow Judith Evans (@JudithREvans), Kaye Wiggins (@kayewiggins) and Michela Tindera (@mtindera07)

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Am I missing anything? Is this the right decision?
0:02.0	Can I show this data?
0:04.0	Am I too late?
0:05.0	Find clarity in your investment decision-making.
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0:11.0	and regulatory alignment
0:12.0	with the ultimate blend of powerful AI and
0:14.6	industry expertise.
0:16.5	Reduce risk, meet your sustainability goals and push the boundaries of possibilities based on
0:21.1	facts, not opinions.
0:23.0	Clarity AI scaling human decisions through tech.
0:26.6	Visit clarity.
0:28.0	AI and take action today.
0:29.4	When it comes to T, one of the top companies in the game is Unilever. It's behind household brands like Lipton, P.G. Tips, and Tazo.
0:43.7	And so it's a big deal when it decides to sell a part of its tea business last year.
0:50.5	Private X-Pems love to buy kind of units of. Private experts,
0:53.0	units of big conglomerates.
0:56.0	They think that this is like where they can really shine.
1:00.0	The F.T.'s K Wiggins says some of these private equity firms had been eyeing Unilever's tea
1:05.4	business for years.
1:07.8	They think they can often buy a division of a company that's maybe been a bit unloved within this wide sprawling
1:14.6	conglomerate and then they can run it independently as a standalone business and invest in it and
	...

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