HENKY Henkel AG and Company KGAA (PK)

By Monica Houston-Waesch and Ellen Emmerentze Jervell 

Germany's Henkel AG agreed to buy the maker of All and Wisk laundry detergents for about $3.6 billion, as the consumer-products company presses its competition with Procter & Gamble Co. in the U.S.

The EUR3.2 billion transaction combines Henkel, whose major brands include Persil laundry detergent and Dial soap, with Sun Products Corp., which in addition to detergents sells Snuggle fabric softener and Sunlight household soaps. The deal gives the European company a bigger presence at U.S. retail chains. Last year, Sun Products generated sales of about $1.6 billion in the U.S. and Canada.

"North America is one of the most important regions for us world-wide," said Henkel Chief Executive Hans Van Bylen. The company is pushing hard to take on P&G in its home market. The U.S. is currently Henkel's largest region in terms of revenue, it said. The Düsseldorf, Germany-based company reported North American regional sales of EUR3.6 billion in 2015 out of total revenue of about EUR18 billion.

Deutsche Bank estimates that Henkel together with Sun will have 21.3% of the U.S. liquid laundry market, leapfrogging Church & Dwight, with 17.1%, and trailing PG's dominant 55% share.

Sun Products, which is based in Wilton, Conn., was created in 2008 after another European consumer-products giant, Unilever NV, decided to exit the North American laundry detergent business.

That is when Unilever sold All, Snuggle and other brands to New York-based private-equity firm Vestar Capital Partners Inc. for about $1.45 billion.

Sun's midprice laundry detergents have been struggling in the U.S., squeezed between P&G's Tide at the premium-priced end of the market and Church & Dwight Co.'s Arm & Hammer discount offering, according to analysts. The company employs around 2,000 people and has two production sites as well as one research and development center in the U.S.

Henkel's former chief executive, Kasper Rorsted, said late last year, before stepping down, that he wanted the company's U.S. business to become between 25% and 27% of its total business, up from 20% then.

In 2015, Henkel struck a deal with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in which the retailer agreed to be the exclusive carrier of Henkel's premium-priced Persil, challenging Tide. It also recently acquired other U.S. companies, including several professional hair-care brands and Bergquist Co., a maker of insulation and other thermal-management products.

Write to Monica Houston-Waesch at nikki.houston@wsj.com and Ellen Emmerentze Jervell at ellen.jervell@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 25, 2016 02:48 ET (06:48 GMT)

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