UNV Unilever Nv

RNS No 3446d
UNILEVER PLC & NV
15th July 1998

     UNILEVER AGREES SALE OF PLANT BREEDING INTERNATIONAL
                 TO MONSANTO FOR #320 MILLION
                               
Unilever announced today that it has agreed to sell Plant
Breeding International Cambridge Limited (PBIC) to Monsanto
Company, for #320 million cash.  The transaction includes PBIC
operations in Scotland and France together with PBI Saatzucht,
its German affiliate company.

 The UK government has been informed of the proposed sale.
Completion is expected on July 16, although the transfer of
PBI Saatzucht will be deferred pending regulatory clearance
from the German competition authorities.

PBIC is a successful business producing and marketing
worldwide new and improved crop varieties. It also has
significant breeding programmes for winter wheat, barley, oil
seed rape, beans, peas and potatoes. It employs some 280
people - at Cambridge, in its breeding stations in France and
Germany and at its potato facility in Scotland.

In April this year, Unilever announced its intention to sell
PBIC as part of its continuing focus on consumer goods
products and the development of its portfolio of foods and
home and personal care businesses.

The sale to Monsanto meets PBIC's need to develop further its
plant breeding capability by gaining access to the research
and development of a global plant science company.  It is
therefore considered to be in the best long-term interests of
the company, its employees and European agriculture.

PBIC was formed in 1987 when Unilever acquired the breeding
and applied science resources of the Plant Breeding Institute
and the National Seed Development Organisation.

Contacts:
Unilever at above numbers                  Monsanto Company:
                                           Ann F Foster - 0171 495 8455
e-mail    press-office.london@unilever.com
Internet  http://www.unilever.com

END


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