ConAgra Foods Inc. agreed to buy Unilever Plc's North American frozen meal business for $265 million, adding the premium Bertolli and P.F. Chang's brands to its existing frozen meal portfolio.
The deal, which is expected to close in the third quarter, includes a license to use the Bertolli brand name and the transfer of Unilever's license to use the P.F. Chang's Home Menu brand name, Unilever said in a statement.
ConAgra already sells frozen meals under the Banquet and Marie Callendar's brands. A ConAgra spokesman was not immediately available to comment.
Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch maker of Hellmann's mayonnaise, Skippy peanut butter and Wish-Bone salad dressings, is executing a strategy to exit the global frozen foods business. It earlier sold its brands in Europe.
ConAgra shares were up 1.3 percent at $24.62 on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday afternoon.
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