Will Unilever acquire tonic brand Fever-Tree?

Tonic brand Fever-Tree appointed a new director, Kevin Havelock. Considering he leads Unilever’s sodas division, there is speculation that Unilever may acquire Fevertree Drinks and that has boosted its share.

Darling in the gin tonic world…

Ever since the news broke that Unilever director will become a part of Fevertree Drinks’ board, the soda manufacturer’s share spiked 10 %. Analysts and investors feel there is only reason for him to join the board, which is that Unilever will acquire Fever-Tree. The company currently only has (ice) tea brands (Lipton worldwide, PG Tips in the United Kingdom and Brisk in the United States for instance) and a popular mixing drink could be a decent contribution.

Fever-Tree has done very well in the past few years, because it is now considered to be a premium mix tonic during the gin tonic hype, which is also more sustainable than anticipated: Fevertree Drinks’ EBIDA grew 102 % in three years’ time to 25.2 million pounds (28 million euro).

… and on the stock exchange

The company, listed since 2014, is also popular on the stock exchange: its share shot up 1200 % in the past three years and it added another 10 % today thanks to the speculations. In total, the company is valued at 2.7 billion pounds (3.1 billion euro), according to De Tijd.

Brits Charles Rolls and Tim Warrillow founded Fevertree Drinks in 2005 and are both still minority shareholders, with 11.2 and 5.3 % respectively. For the first half of its fiscal year 2017, it generated a 77 % turnover increase, to 71.9 million pounds (82 million euro).