LONDON (Reuters) - Magnum CEO Peter ter Kulve dismissed any talk of selling Ben & Jerry's on Wednesday and said he was focused on reclaiming market share and growing sales as the spin-off of the new Magnum Ice Cream Company from Unilever approaches.
Unilever expects the ice cream business, which includes brands such as Magnum, Ben & Jerry's, Wall's and Cornetto, to command just over a fifth of the around $88 billion global ice cream market and compete with rivals such as Nestle-backed Froneri.
Magnum
is already operating separately to Unilever and after years of declining ice cream market share and stagnant profits, ter Kulve said the shift has been a game changer, allowing the company to invest in supply chains, sales and distribution.
"Last year, we had a massive (market) share step up," ter Kulve said.
Ben & Jerry's seized the spotlight at an investor day ahead of the mid-November listing on Tuesday, renewing a call for its own spin-off after years of clashes over the U.S. brand's vocal position on Gaza.
Asked about an approach to Unilever led by Ben & Jerry's co-founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield to buy the brand last year, Magnum CEO ter Kulve said: "I have not been privy to any discussion between Unilever and Ben & Jerry."
"Ben & Jerry's is not for sale," ter Kulve said.
Unilever's CEO Fernando Fernandez is trying to shake up the consumer goods conglomerate by streamlining management and boosting margins. It will retain less than 20% of the ice cream business after it has been listed.
Magnum's CFO Abhijit Bhattacharya said the split was a win-win for both entities with Unilever's portfolio becoming more focused and Magnum, concerned only with ice cream, having the opportunity to improve margins.
Bhattacharya said the terms of the demerger, under which every Unilever shareholder will get a relative stake in Magnum, shields the company from market volatility that an initial public offering might usually face.
"Basically we know our future shareholders, at least on day one," Bhattacharya said. "So the demerger actually de-risks us from the market vagaries of an IPO."
(Reporting by Alexander Marrow and Lisa Jucca; Editing by Joe Bavier, Elaine Hardcastle)
