Unilever’s big institutional shareholders clearly think the shares are a long-term buy. Otherwise why would they have rolled up their sleeves and battled the British-Dutch consumer goods group and forced it to back down on a contentious plan that would have diluted its London listing?
The dust has yet to settle on a clash that could lead to the accelerated departure of Paul Polman, Unilever’s chief executive, or the exit of Marijn Dekkers, its chairman, as punishment for a farrago that the company mishandled. Unilever, and probably its main shareholders, too, remains committed to a plan to simplify its structure, but how that will be achieved has yet to be resolved. In the meantime, what was all the fuss about? Why is Unilever so