Henkel In Talks To Buy Sealed Air’s Diversey Care Division

German consumer giant Henkel is in discussions to buy Sealed Air’s professional cleaning division, Diversey Care, for a price likely to exceed $3billion (approx £2.4billion), according to the New York Post.

Sealed Air announced in October plans to spin off the Diversey unit, as well as its food hygiene and cleaning businesses, to shareholders. It suggested a spinoff of Diversey Care would happen in the second half of 2017.

However, Sealed Air is also pursuing a sale of Diversey as part of a dual process, sources told the American paper.

“Private-equity firms want to bid for it, but Henkel is in there” and it may pay more, according to the source.

“This could be a spin, but it sounds to me like a sale is even more likely,” a Sealed Air analyst said. “Valuations are pretty strong, and I think Diversey’s tax basis is also pretty high so they would have limited tax leakage on a cash sale.”

Sealed Air bought Diversey Care for $4.3billion (approx £3.45billion) in 2011.