Siddharth Cavale

(Reuters) – Terry Smith, a British fund manager who is influential in Britain, attacked Unilever’s (NYSE:) failed bid of 50 billion pounds ($68.2billion) for GSK Consumer Health assets. He called it a “near-death experience”, and urged Unilever’s management to concentrate on improving performance.

Smith, who is now the 13th largest shareholder in Unilever’s Fundsmith vehicle, wrote to investors critiquing Unilever for not openly communicating the benefits and for its “penchant to corporate gobbledegook to substitute for effective actions.”

“It seems to us that Unilever management’s response to its poor performance has been to utter meaningless platitudes to which it has now attempted to add major M&A activity. The letter was signed by Smith, Julian Robins and Head of Research.

Unilever has not yet responded to my request for comment.

Unilever’s offer for GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Health (NYSE:) was withdrawn late Wednesday after analysts and markets widely criticised the deal.

GSK stated that the offer was too low and would continue with the plan to spin the company off.

“We are glad that Unilever management listened to us and has seemed to have ended our attempt to acquire GSK Consumer, by refusing its fourth bid,” it said. The letter described the criticism as “near death” experience.

Smith’s “near-death experience” was reminiscent of comments made by Paul Polman (NASDAQ:), Unilever’s prior CEO, when he described his fight against a hostile Kraft Heinz takeover offer in 2017.

GSK’s consumer division was rejected by the Fundsmith, and would be subject to its own accounting when it is listed separately later in the year.

Smith has not been the only one to criticize Unilever recently.

He criticised Unilever last week for being obsessed with sustainability, at the cost of performance. Unilever was among the equity funds’ worst performers in 2021.

($1 = 0.7332 pounds)