Unilever, world's third largest consumer products company, announced Friday its plans to acquire Sara Lee Corp.'s personal care unit in an all cash deal worth 1.28 billion euros.

Dove soap, Vaseline, Axe and Comfort and food products are among the brands being produced by Unilever.

It was informed that the businesses that Unilever is going to acquire had sales of 750 million euros and operating earning of 128 million euros during the period of 12 months ended June.

Sara Lee's chief executive Brenda Barnes said, "The divestiture of body care and European detergents would advance our strategy to concentrate on our core food and beverage businesses."

The companies are expecting the deal to be finalized sometime in 2010.

In the recent trading, shares in Unilever dropped to 19.29 euros, losing 3 cents in Amsterdam trading, while Illinois-based Sara Lee dropped 26 cents to $10.54 on NYSE. The deal is yet to obtain regulatory approval.

(Via TopNews United Kingdom. Contributed by Gurpreet Singh)