LONDON / NEW YORK — 18 December 2025. Unilever PLC stock is entering a new phase after one of its biggest structural moves in years: the demerger of its ice cream business into The Magnum Ice Cream Company (TMICC) and the follow-on share consolidation for Unilever shareholders. Markets are now trying to answer a deceptively simple question with very non-simple inputs: is the “new Unilever” (more Beauty, Personal Care, and Wellbeing; less cold-chain logistics) a cleaner, faster-growth consumer staples compounder—or just a slimmer version of the same old battle? [1]
On the US line (NYSE ADR: UL), Unilever last traded around $65.57 (latest timestamp available early 18 Dec UTC), up about 1.94% versus the prior close. In London (LSE: ULVR), Unilever closed £48.82 on Wednesday, 17 December, outperforming the broader FTSE 100 session. [2] On the continental line, the Amsterdam listing traded around €55.90 on 18 December (per Investing.com’s session data). [3]
Below is what matters right now for Unilever stock on 18.12.2025: the post-demerger mechanics investors are still digesting, the freshest company/sector news, and the latest forecast notes shaping expectations into 2026.
The big structural reset: Magnum ice cream is out, and Unilever shares have been consolidated
Unilever completed the demerger of its ice cream operation—now TMICC—in early December, with TMICC listing and trading commencing 8 December 2025. [4] As part of the separation, Unilever implemented a share consolidation: investors received 8 new Unilever shares for every 9 existing shares (economically similar to a reverse split), with the new shares beginning trading shortly after. [5]
Two practical implications for anyone tracking Unilever PLC stock today:
- Price comparisons can look “weird” across early December
The share consolidation mechanically lifts the per-share price while reducing the share count—so a “jump” around the effective date can be optical rather than fundamental. - Some market plumbing changed
Corporate-action notices flagged that Unilever’s ISIN changed following the consolidation (useful for funds, brokers, and anyone reconciling holdings). [6]
What the Magnum listing is telling investors about Unilever—whether they like it or not
The ice cream business didn’t leave the narrative quietly.
Reuters reported TMICC listed at about €7.8 billion in valuation, below some expectations, amid questions about sugar-heavy products in a more health-conscious consumer environment. [7] The Financial Times’ analysis framed the early market reaction as underwhelming, pointing to a gap between the value “lost” at Unilever and the value “created” at the new ice cream entity in initial trading, and noting that TMICC traded on relatively modest multiples versus some snack peers. [8]
Why Unilever investors should care, even though ice cream is now “gone”:
- Unilever retained a ~19.9% stake in TMICC. That residual holding can still matter for valuation, headlines, and (eventually) how and when the stake is monetized. [9]
- The FT specifically flagged that Unilever’s remaining stake could act as an overhang as it is sold down over time. [10]
- And the Ben & Jerry’s governance drama—historically a reputational and political lightning rod for Unilever—has effectively moved under TMICC’s roof. That may reduce direct operational distraction for Unilever, but it doesn’t erase the broader ecosystem risk while Unilever still owns a slice of the spun entity. [11]
The current investment case: “New Unilever” is being pitched as faster, higher-margin, more US-centric
The post-ice-cream story Unilever is trying to sell investors is basically: focus + premiumisation + margin expansion + selective M&A.
Margin narrative: the key number investors keep repeating
In a widely-circulated December note, Reuters reported Unilever expects operating margins to be 100 basis points higher without ice cream in the second half, targeting at least 19.5%. [12] That’s the kind of round, memorable number that tends to become a market “anchor”—and it will likely be treated as a scoreboard item through 2026.
M&A narrative: money earmarked, and the US is the bullseye
Reuters also reported CEO Fernando Fernandez said Unilever is allocating about €1.5 billion (~$1.74 billion) a year for mergers and acquisitions, with a heavy focus on the United States. [13]
That aligns neatly with how Unilever itself has been framing the opportunity set. In Unilever’s published takeaways from Fernandez’s JPMorgan interview (12 December 2025), the company highlighted several US-centric claims: strong retailer relationships, premium-led growth drivers, and the idea that Unilever has built a notably strong “growth footprint” in the US. [14]
The same interview notes also underlined how critical the US and India are to the growth math—Unilever says India is about 14% of revenue and the US about 21%, positioning those two markets as anchors for its volume-growth ambitions. [15]
Fresh portfolio news: Unilever is still trimming “non-core” assets
While the ice cream demerger is the headline structural move, Unilever has continued pruning at the edges.
On 1 December 2025, Unilever announced it agreed to sell its Graze snacking business to Katjes International, placing Graze under the Candy Kittens group in the UK. [16] Reuters reported the deal is expected to close in the first half of 2026 and framed it as part of Unilever’s broader effort to streamline and tilt toward higher-growth/higher-margin segments like beauty and wellbeing. [17]
For Unilever stock, the takeaway isn’t “Graze is huge.” It’s that management is still actively shaping the portfolio—and the market is more likely to reward that activity if it’s paired with clear growth acceleration and less complexity.
The Ben & Jerry’s governance saga is flaring again—now under Magnum
One of the more unusual storylines orbiting Unilever over the years has been Ben & Jerry’s and the limits of corporate control versus brand “social mission” independence.
That storyline is still alive—just relocated.
Reuters reported Ben & Jerry’s implemented a nine-year term limit for independent board directors, a change that could remove multiple current members, including chair Anuradha Mittal, after TMICC became the owner following the Unilever ice cream separation. [18] The Financial Times reported on TMICC’s move to oust the chair, describing an escalating struggle among Magnum leadership, the independent board, and brand stakeholders. [19]
For Unilever shareholders, this matters less as an operating issue (since Ben & Jerry’s is no longer in Unilever’s continuing business) and more as:
- a sentiment / headline-volatility factor around TMICC while Unilever still holds ~19.9%, and [20]
- a reminder that “simplification” doesn’t instantly delete complexity—it often just moves it to a different box.
Analyst forecasts and price targets: cautious optimism, but growth expectations are being trimmed
The most concrete sell-side datapoint circulating into 18.12.2025 is a TD Cowen update (published 16 December):
- Price target: lowered to $70 from $71 (NYSE: UL), Buy rating maintained
- Forecast change: FY2026 growth forecast cut to 3.8% from 4.2% (excluding ice cream)
- FY2025 organic growth estimate: lowered by 20 bps to 3.5%
- The note also referenced the share-count impact of Unilever’s post-demerger consolidation (framed as an ~11% reduction in share count), alongside valuation context including a stated dividend yield. [21]
In plain English: even with a Buy rating, at least one major analyst is signaling, “Yes, the strategy is clearer—but don’t assume the growth ramp is effortless.” That’s a very 2025 consumer-staples vibe.
Meanwhile, some technical/market commentary has pointed to improving momentum in the UK line: MarketBeat flagged Unilever shares crossing above the 200-day moving average, while also describing a mixed analyst backdrop in its dataset. [22] (Treat this as color rather than gospel—technical signals are mood rings with math.)
What Unilever has already told the market about underlying performance
Unilever’s most recent official trading snapshot before this December news cycle was its Q3 2025 trading update (23 October 2025). The company reported underlying sales growth of 3.9% (and 4.0% excluding Ice Cream), with volume growth of 1.5% (1.7% excluding Ice Cream). [23]
That matters because it pins Unilever’s “base case” in investors’ minds: not hypergrowth, but steady mid-single-digit-ish progress—assuming execution holds and macro conditions don’t throw a chair through the window.
Key dates and catalysts after 18.12.2025
If you’re following Unilever PLC stock into year-end and early 2026, the next big scheduled catalyst on the company calendar is:
- 12 February 2026:Q4 and Full-Year 2025 Results [24]
Between now and then, investors will likely stay focused on:
- Evidence that margins are expanding toward management’s post-ice-cream targets [25]
- What M&A actually looks like with ~€1.5bn/year earmarked (and whether deals skew toward genuinely accretive “power brand” adjacencies versus empire-building) [26]
- How/when Unilever reduces its 19.9% TMICC stake, and whether the market treats it as value to be unlocked or an overhang to be priced in [27]
- Any spillover from TMICC’s governance disputes that could affect the residual stake’s market value and investor sentiment [28]
Bottom line for Unilever stock on 18.12.2025
Unilever PLC enters the final stretch of 2025 with a cleaner story but not a free pass.
The ice cream demerger and share consolidation are mostly “done” events now—but they’ve set a new standard for what shareholders will demand: clearer focus, better margins, and more convincing growth in beauty/wellbeing, supported by disciplined M&A. [29]
The near-term market mood looks like guarded patience: analyst targets remain constructive in places (TD Cowen stayed Buy), but growth assumptions are being marked down slightly, implying that 2026 will be about execution—less fireworks, more scoreboard. [30]
References
1. www.reuters.com, 2. www.marketwatch.com, 3. www.investing.com, 4. www.unilever.com, 5. www.reuters.com, 6. www.eurex.com, 7. www.reuters.com, 8. www.ft.com, 9. www.reuters.com, 10. www.ft.com, 11. www.reuters.com, 12. www.reuters.com, 13. www.reuters.com, 14. www.unilever.com, 15. www.unilever.com, 16. www.unilever.com, 17. www.reuters.com, 18. www.reuters.com, 19. www.ft.com, 20. www.unilever.com, 21. m.investing.com, 22. www.marketbeat.com, 23. www.unilever.com, 24. www.unilever.com, 25. www.reuters.com, 26. www.reuters.com, 27. www.unilever.com, 28. www.reuters.com, 29. www.reuters.com, 30. m.investing.com
